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EASY ENTERTAINING 





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EASY ENTERTAINING 



BY 
CAROLINE FRENCH BENTON 

Author of " A Little Cook Book," " Saturday 
Mornings," "Living on a Little," etc. 




PUBLISHERS 

DANA ESTES COMPANY 

BOSTON 



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Copyright, igii 
By Dana Estes & Company 

All rights reserved 






Electrotyped and Printed by 
THE COLONIAL PRESS 
C. H. Simonds & Co., Boston, U.S.A. 



CI.A20.39G3 



Thanks are due the editor of Harper's Bazar for 
permission to reproduce in this book material which 
appeared in that magazine under another name. 
Caroline French Benton. 



Qlnnt^ttta 



PAGE 

Setting the Table ii 

Spring Luncheons . . . . . . .15 

A Spring Luncheon Costing Three Dollars . . .21 

Easter Time 29 

Easter Menus 37 

Easter Luncheons and Breakfasts . . . . .44 

Entertaining on May Day ...... 52 

Luncheons for May Days ...... 60 

Spring Menus for Four Weeks ..... 67 

Mid-summer Luncheon ...... 72 

The Cold Dinner 79 

Simmier Dirmers ....... 86 

Little Dinners for Three Dollars 93 

A Bride's Dinner ........ loi 

Veranda Luncheons . . . . . . .108 

Picnic Limcheons. No. i . . . . . " . iii 

Picnic Luncheons. No. 2 . . . . . .119 

Summer Menus for Four Weeks . . . . .126 

Two September Functions 131 

An Autumn Dinner and Luncheon .... 137 

A Coimtry Dinner and Supper for October . . . 144 

Hallowe'en Suppers 151 

The Thanksgiving Dinner. No. i . . . . 157 

The Thanksgiving Dinner. No. 2 . . . .167 

V 



vi CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Men's Dinners ........ 178 

Autumn Menus for Four "Weeks ..... 185 

Afternoon Tea 190 

Buffet Luncheons and Suppers ..... 197 

Mid-winter Luncheons 204 

The Christmas Dinner. No. i . . . . . 212 

The Christmas Dinner. No. 2 223 

Midnight Suppers ....... 234 

Valentine Luncheons 240 

Winter Menus for Four Weeks ..... 247 



Slt0t 0f 3(lluBtratt0nB 

PAGB 

An Attractive Dinner Table .... Frontispiece i^ 

May Day Party Cake 52 .- 

Sponge- Cake Basket for Berries 75 

Miniature Trees for Dinner Favors . . . .102 
A Grape- Juice Punch with Effective Surroundings . . 135 *- 
The Correct Lixncheon Table 206 »^ 



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SETTING THE TABLE 

NO one to-day thinks of laying a dinner cloth 
for even the simplest family meal without first 
putting on the pad of wool or felt which 
saves the polish of the wood below and gives body 
to the linen above; but before the housekeeper in- 
vests in a new pad she should look at the expensive 
but most excellent asbestos table-covers which pro- 
tect the table from even the hottest dish, as no pad 
ever does with complete success. The cost of this 
new covering is not so much, after all, if one considers 
that she will never have to have her table repolished 
if she uses it. But whatever goes under it the cloth 
must have a word. The shops are fuU of beautiful 
linens, the prettiest having small patterns, clover 
leaves and blossoms, pansies, fleurs-de-lis, and the 
dainty old snowdrops predominating. There are 
round cloths for the circular tables, and these hang 
much better than do the square or oblong shapes 

when put on a round table. There are lovely cloths 
11 



12 EASY ENTERTAINING 

to be had with drawn -work or lace centres, but these 
are not practical, as they can be used for only the 
most formal of dinners. The plain, heavy damask 
which grows glossier with age is always best to pur- 
chase. 

For luncheon there are attractive doilies, and these 
are seen on almost every table. There are pretty 
and inexpensive sets of plain linen,buttonholed around 
the edge, either with or without a monogram; there 
are more expensive sets which have an open-work 
border, fringe, and embroidery, and lace sets which 
are less durable than either of these. In buying any 
of them there should be a centre-piece, large doilies 
for the plates and dishes, and small ones for the 
tumblers and little dishes, with felt mats to go under- 
neath. 

If doilies are not used at luncheon, then a small 
cloth takes their place, one with a band of insertion 
when there is company; and both for the every -day 
table and for the formal luncheon the napkins should 
be rather small. They may be very beautiful, with 
drawn -work and embroidery, or they may be plain 
damask, with or without a monogram, or they may 
be merely a small -sized napkin of the ordinary sort, 
if the family is alone. To lay the table for a dinner- 
party, first arrange your flowers, candles, small dishes 
for bonbons, almonds, olives, and the like. Candles 



EASY ENTERTAINING 13 

are used as the fancy dictates. They may be in single 
sticks, grouped around the flowers in the centre, or 
they may be candelabra, one on either side of the 
flowers. The Uttle dishes are to be put on irregularly 
toward the central decorations. The cover for each 
person must have as much space as is possible; about 
twenty inches from the last fork or knife on one side 
to the edge of the napkin on the other will be none too 
much. In the middle lay a large, handsome plate; 
this is to be lifted and replaced by the hot ones as 
they come on in turn, being put down as the soiled 
ones are removed, but the small plate for the canapes, 
and that for the oysters or clams, and the soup plate 
may be laid directly upon it. On the right of the 
plate, nearest to it, comes the roast knife, then that 
for the game; two knives are all that are laid at the 
cover generally. Then comes the soup spoon, and, 
last, the small fork for oysters. On the left is first 
the large fork, then the second size, then the salad 
fork, and the napkin is beyond, provided there is 
room; if not, it should be folded lightly in a triangu- 
lar shape and laid on the plate; this napkin holds the 
dinner roll. All the knives and forks needed beyond 
those at the cover may be laid down as the meal goes 
on, except the dessert fork and spoon, which may Ue 
across the top of the place plate. The glasses are to 
stand across the top also, the tumbler at the right and 



14 EASY ENTERTAINING 

the wine -glasses,if these are used, toward the left in the 
order in which they are needed. Some housekeepers 
place the oyster fork at an angle across the ends of 
the knives and soup spoon, which is a Uttle odd. This 
is a question that has no definite rule which is of cast- 
iron severity. All vegetables except asparagus are 
served on the meat plate, so no small dishes are re- 
quired at the covers on a well-set table in these days. 
Bread-and-butter plates are not used at dinner. 

In laying the luncheon table follow the same plan 
as before. Have a service plate, and arrange the silver 
just as at dinner, except that there may be one more 
fork and one more knife. There may also be a bread- 
and-butter plate. 

Dinner and luncheon cards lie on the napkin. For 
a formal meal the dinner cards are extremely plain; if 
there is any decoration it consists of the hostess's mon- 
ogram in small gold letters at the top. Luncheon cards, 
on the contrary, may be as fanciful as one pleases. 

It is noticeable that dinner tables are far simpler 
than they have been for many years; there is less 
display of silver, cut glass, decorated china, and the 
like. Good taste demands a certain restraint in the 
use of these things, and this, after all, makes a table 
attractive, especially as the hostess bestows more 
thought than ever on having it artistic and dainty 
rather than splendid. 



SPRING LUNCHEONS 

TO find something new and lovely in the way of 
table decoration often seems a task, especially 
to a hostess who entertains frequently, and 
has seen many sorts of flowers in as many groupings. 
Yet surely in May the question need not be a trouble, 
for here is everything to choose from. One of the 
newest and most effective things is simple enough for 
any one to arrange. Take a Japanese fern -ball which 
is fresh and green and suspend it over the luncheon 
table by an invisible wire; then make a large bed of 
moss under it, on a platter, with an edge of ferns 
like those above, and fill both with long-stemmed 
daisies, each one fastened to a toothpick to hold it 
in place. The moss will need to have a few sprays 
of ferns like those of the border put between the flow- 
ers to fill out the spaces, but not so many as to crowd 
the daisies; the beauty of the whole lies in having 
the effect dainty, not crowded. With this arrange- 
ment have guest cards of wide-open daisies cut from 
white cardboard and tinted on the edges and in the 
centre, with the name of each guest added, across the 
middle, in gold letters. Or sketch the faces of pretty 

15 



16 EASY ENTERTAINING 

young girls and put a halo of daisy petals around each 
one. Have some of the dishes of the menu in yellow 
and white, but not so many as to make this color 
scheme noticeable. If you wish a contrast to all this 
white and green you might mix a few pink roses or 
some yellow jonquils with the daisies, but they are 
more delicate by themselves. 

Another pretty table may be made by having a 
centrepiece of violets made low and flat, edged with 
ferns, and then making wreaths of lilies -of -the -valley 
by winding them around a stiff wire bent in a circular 
shape and fastened; to these long ribbons may be 
attached, and a plain card with the guest's name 
may be half concealed beneath, and then the wreaths 
will serve the double purpose of cards and souvenirs. 
The finger-bowls may have a few violets in the water, 
and if a white ice -cream closes the meal a tiny bunch 
of violets may lie with it on each plate. 

MENU 

Iced pineapple in glasses. 

Cream of asparagus soup. 

Salmon croquettes with sauce tartare; potato balls. 

Veal cutlet in strips, olive sauce. French pease; potatoes. 

Cucumber jelly; mayonnaise. Sandwiches. 

Bouche'es of jelly and ice-cream. Cakes. 

Coffee. Bonbons. 

The first course, pineapple, is made by shredding 
the fruit and thoroughly chilling it by burying it in 



EASY ENTERTAINING 17 

SL freezer in ice and salt for an hour before luncheon; 
then it is put in sherbet -glasses, a spoonful of cordial 
which has been well sweetened poured over, and last 
of all a little shredded ice is laid in each glass. 

The croquettes may be made from canned or fresh 
fish; this is picked over, the skin, bones, and fat re- 
moved, and then it is mashed with seasoning and a 
very stiff and rich white sauce; it must be spread on 
a platter for two hours to harden, after which the 
croquettes may be moulded easily. They should be 
breaded and then fried in deep fat. The sauce tar tare 
is a mayonnaise to which chopped pickle and a tiny 
bit of onion have been added. 

For the meat course, cut veal cutlet into strips four 
inches long and three wide and fry them in butter; 
chop a cupful of stoned olives or pimolas and stir 
into the frying-pan when the meat is done, and make 
a brown gravy as usual; pour all over the cutlet. 
The cucumber jelly must be prepared the day before 
the luncheon. Take six cucumbers, peel, cut" up, 
and stew gently till nearly dry; then measure and 
season, setting with the amount of gelatine needed. 
The next day break up the solid mass into pieces, and 
send to the table on lettuce hearts with mayonnaise, 
or fill cucumber shells with the jelly and serve, pass- 
ing the mayonnaise. 

The sweet suggested is extremely pretty. Get the 



18 EASY ENTERTAINING 

prepared fruit jelly which comes in packages, to begin 
with; if the flowers on the table are all white, buy 
the strawberry jelly, but if they are violet, get that 
which is clear, lemon preferably, and color it with 
violet coloring. Melt and set it to harden in ordinary 
jelly -glasses. When it is hard turn these moulds 
out on the plates you mean to serve the course on, 
and with a warm teaspoon dip out their centres, leav- 
ing a thick transparent shell; fill this with ice-cream, 
some white variety of course, but add a few candied 
cherries on top if the jelly is red, or a few candied 
violets if that color is used. Offer some light cake with 
these bouchees, — either angel's-food, or sunshine 
cake, or strips of either iced. 

If this is to be a rather elaborate luncheon the menu 
might be varied to include a sherbet after the meat 
course, and chicken or squab may take the place of 
veal, though the last is very nice if carefully cooked, 
and a welcome change from the other things one sees 
so often. A second menu might be: 

Clams on the half-shell. 

Tomato bouillon. 

Shad-roe croquettes with cream sauce; cucumbers. 

Fried sweetbreads with asparagus tips; French pease; new 

potatoes. 

Mint sherbet. 

Orange salad; mayonnaise; wafers. 

Vanilla ice-cream with almonds. Cakes. 

Coffee. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 19 

The mint sherbet suggested for this luncheon is a 
lemonade in which enough mint has been cooked to 
flavor it; after cooling and freezing this it is put in 
sherbet -cups with a sprig of mint which has been 
dipped in powdered sugar stuck upright in each 
cup. The ice is a rich vanilla, sliced, and on each 
slice is put a spoonful of whipped cream which has 
been stirred stiff with chopped almonds. One more 
menu may be given: 

Chilled strawberries. 

Bouillon. 

Brook trout (or smelts with sauce tartare) ; cucumbers. 

Chicken in rice border. 

Cherry salad. Sandwiches. 

Maple mousse. Cakes. 

Coffee. 

The chicken is stewed in large pieces and then the 
bones are removed. The gravy is thickened with 
an egg, and to season it a little sherry is stirred in. The 
second joints and large pieces of the breast are piled 
up in a pyramid in a border of cooked rice, and the 
gravy is poured over the whole. The rice makes 
potato unnecessary with the course. The salad is 
made by stoning California cherries, — the dark ones, 
— and putting them in French dressing for half an 
hour; then they are laid on lettuce hearts and the 
dressing poured over the whole; this is one of the 
very best of spring salads. The sandwiches passed 



20 EASY ENTERTAINING 

with it are made by slicing day -old Boston brown 
bread lengthwise of the loaf and putting two slices 
in alternate layers with two slices of white bread, with 
cream cheese between; the loaf made in this way is 
then cut across, giving the exact appearance to the 
sandwiches of chocolate layer cake. The mousse 
is made by cooking a cup of maple syrup with the 
stiffly beaten yolks of eleven eggs until they will 
coat the spoon; then it is beaten, when somewhat 
cool, into a pint of whipped cream and packed away 
in a mould for five hours. 



A SPRING LUNCHEON COSTING THREE 
DOLLARS 

CAN a hostess really have a spring luncheon for 
six guests for three dollars? Of course she can, 
and an attractive and substantial meal at that, 
provided she will content herself with the dishes in 
market at the moment; and surely in the months 
when vegetables and fruits are plenty and fruit not 
beyond one's purse, any one would indeed be hard 
to please who found catering difficult at the price. 
Take this little luncheon to begin with: 

Cream of beet soup. 

Fish filets with horseradish sauce. 

Creamed chicken a la Washington; pease. 

Lettuce, egg, and cheese salad; wafers. 

Pineapple sherbet. 

Coffee. 

In marketing, buy for the soup a quart of milk and 
a small bunch of beets; simmer the latter in a half 
pint of water till they are a pulp; season, press through 
a sieve, add the milk, thicken slightly, and put into hot 
cups. If the new beets cost over five cents a bunch 
get old ones, and use about three, chopped. 

21 



22 EASY ENTERTAINING 

The fish can be any kind which is cheapest and best 
in your particular market; a whitefish, a large floun- 
der, a weakfish, or a slice of halibut will do nicely; cut 
it up evenly, dip each piece in fine and well -seasoned 
crumbs, then in half -beaten egg yolk, then in crumbs, 
and dry well; after an hour put two at a time into a 
wire basket and fry; drain on paper. For the sauce, 
which is the best part of the dish, whip a half pint 
of thick cream and mix Hghtly with a heaping table - 
spoonful of horseradish. Lay the six pieces of fish on 
a hot platter, and put the cream into a cold glass bowl 
in the middle. 

The creamed chicken is new and yet old, for it is 
made by a genuine Colonial recipe, and is really de- 
licious: cut up a small cooked chicken into even bits; 
if you have more than you will need reject part of 
the dark meat, and use more white; make a cup of 
rich white sauce and season well; put the chicken into 
this and heat it; then add the beaten yolks of two eggs 
and stir till smooth, and last put in two hard-boiled 
eggs chopped to the same size as the chicken, and add 
a couple of tablespoonfuls of sherry. Serve this hot, 
either as it is or in individual dishes, and have a dish 
of pease to pass with it; use small -sized canned Ameri- 
can pease, but drain them and reheat with more sea- 
soning. 

The salad is just the one for this time of year when 



EASY ENTERTAINING 23 

eggs are cheap; boil three hard and cut them across, 
and take the yolk out carefully; cut also a tiny slice 
from the bottom so they will stand; put a leaf or two 
of lettuce on each plate; get a five -cent cream cheese 
and crumble it fine; put this first on the lettuce, then 
on it put the egg yolk, minced fine; stand the little 
white egg cup on top, and fill this with a stiff mayon- 
naise; pass thin crackers with it. One head of let- 
tuce will be enough for this salad. 

For the dessert, get a pineapple for fifteen cents; 
they are quite as cheap as this in the spring in town; 
if you do not find any, get a small tin of the grated 
pineapple. Press through the sieve, add the juice 
of a lemon, two cups of v/ater boiled with one cup of 
sugar, and a tablespoonful of gelatine dissolved in 
water; stir this last into the hot syrup. Mix all to- 
gether, cool and freeze; serve in glasses. 

Nowadays tea is served for luncheon with the main 
course quite as often as coffee last of all; this substitu- 
tion can be made if one prefers. As to the cost of 
this meal, this is a liberal estimate, with allowance for 
seasoning and such small items: 

Soup — milk, 9 cents; beets, 6 cents. Fish — (i8 
cents a pound), pound and a half, 27 cents; cream, 
half a bottle (or a quarter of a pint), 6 cents; horse- 
radish, 5 cents. Chicken — small fowl costing 75 
cents; eggs, white sauce, sherry, 12 cents. Pease — 



24 EASY ENTERTAINING 

one can, 15 cents. Lettuce — one head, 8 cents; eggs, 
cream cheese, mayonnaise, 25 cents. Pineapple, 
lemon, sugar, gelatine, 25 cents; ice and salt, 15 cents. 
Coffee, 10 cents. Bread and butter, crackers, 12 cents. 
— Total, $2.50. 

This leaves enough for half a pound of Jordan alm- 
onds, to be salted at home, and thirty cents for some 
spring flowers; or if a pot of primroses is bought at 
ten cents, there can also be half-a-pound of pink and 
white peppermints. 

Another luncheon might have a substantial course 
of chops for one thing, and something new in the way 
of a salad. 

Strawberries. 

Cream of cress soup; crackers. 

Frenched chops; new potatoes, creamed; pease. 

Alexandra salad with French dressing. 

Ginger mousse. 

Coffee. 

Strawberries in the spring ought not to cost over 
twenty cents a box; if they do, this first course may 
be cut out altogether, or some California cherries may 
be served in their place. If the berries are used, serve 
about seven good -sized ones to each person, laying 
them on a paper doily on a small plate in a circle, 
hulls on, and put a little heap of powdered sugar in 
the middle. Have a finger bowl above each cover. 

For the soup get a five -cent bunch of watercress; 



EASY ENTERTAINING 25 

wash it well and chop it; simmer in a pint of water 
with a slice of onion; when it is soft and pulpy and 
the water half gone, put it through the sieve and 
proceed exactly as for the cream of beet soup. 

For the next course get nice little chops and have 
them trimmed; broil them and put a white paper 
frill on each; have new potatoes, creamed, and pease 
as before; if you choose you may add a glass of home- 
made jelly to the menu. 

The salad is particularly nice, and as there is no 
fish course in the luncheon it is a good time to have 
it, for it is not especially light. Get from the grocer 
a small round head of lettuce for each person; what 
are called " seconds ' ' — that is, heads of Boston 
lettuce from which the outer leaves have been re- 
moved; these cost only five cents each in winter 
time, and will probably be still less in spring, though, 
for safety's sake, it is well to allow the outer price. 
Wash these heads, and with a small sharp knife cut a 
round place in the top of each, and then cut down and 
around till the centre is removed, leaving a cup; 
into this put a few halved white grapes with the seeds 
taken out, and with them put red California cherries, 
stoned, or a little grapefruit pulp, and cover just be- 
fore serving with French dressing; lay each little 
salad on a dark green lettuce leaf when you serve 
it. 



26 EASY ENTERTAINING 

For the mousse, boil a cup of sugar to a thread with 
a cup of water; pour slowly over the stiff whites of 
three eggs and beat till cold; fold in a half pint of 
cream, whipped stiff; put into a pail, and bury in ice 
and salt four hours; serve in glasses, and put a little 
preserved ginger on each; a pot of this costs fifteen 
cents, and only part will be needed. 

This luncheon also allows a little for flowers and 
candy and almonds. For flowers, if one can get a 
quantity of violets from the woods, they may be tied 
in bunches and put into a large bowl or basket in the 
centre; this is a simple and lovely spring centre- 
piece. 

Strawberries, one box, 20 cents. Soup — water- 
cress, one bunch, 5 cents; milk, one quart, 9 cents. 
Chops — six, 40 cents; potatoes, one quart, 10 cents; 
pease, one can, 15 cents. Salad — six small heads 
lettuce, 30 cents; grapes, cherries, or one grapefruit, 
and French dressing, 30 cents. Mousse — half pint 
of cream, 22 cents; sugar, eggs, ginger, 25 cents. 
Coffee, 10 cents. Bread, butter, crackers, 12 cents. 
— Total $2.28. 

The seventy cents remaining goes, as before, for 
almonds, oUves, candies, and all the flowers which 
one chooses to buy. 

This luncheon might be altered a little, and a fish 
course introduced in this way: 



EASY ENTERTAINING 27 

Cream of watercress soup. 

Creamed crab meat on corn fritters. 

Chops; pease and potatoes; tea. 

Escarole salad with pepper rings. 

Ginger mousse; cake strips. 

At most fish markets one can buy fresh crab meat; 
elsewhere it can be had in cans, and is very good in- 
deed; cream a cup of the meat, making the sauce with 
very rich milk or thin cream, and stir in the yolks of 
two eggs to thicken it. Take part of a can of corn, 
drain and chop it; or better, get grated corn; add 
to this the usual batter for fritters; beat one egg 
yolk, add a little salt and pepper, put in one cup of the 
corn and half a cup of flour mixed with half a teaspoon - 
ful of baking-powder; then put in the beaten white 
of the egg, and last thin with milk to the consistency 
of griddle -cake batter; pour a little at a time on a hot 
griddle, and fry brown, turning once; cover each with 
a spoonful of the creamed crab meat, and serve one 
to each person. This is a very nice luncheon dish 
for spring. 

For the salad, wash the escarole and divide it, 
leaving four or more leaves together in a little bunch; 
sometimes you can cut down through the whole 
better than you can divide it otherwise; on each little 
bunch slip two rings of green peppers, or one of pepper 
and one of onion; cover with French dressing. 

/ 



28 EASY ENTERTAINING 

To serve with the mousse, make a little batter of 
any sort of cake and thin it so it will pour easily over 
a buttered tin; put this into the oven and bake it 
quickly before it has time to dry out; draw out the 
pan, cut it into even strips, and brush each one over 
with white of egg and scatter chopped nuts on top; 
brown slightly in the oven. 

This luncheon will not exceed the price of three 
dollars, either. 

Soup as before, 14 cents. Half a pound of crab 
meat, or half a small tin, 20 cents; cream, eggs, com, 
and flour, etc., 25 cents. Chops, pease, and potatoes as 
before, 65 cents. Escarole, peppers, French dressing, 
30 cents. Mousse, as before, 47 cents. Cake strips, 
15 cents. Coffee, 10 cents. Bread and butter, 
crackers, 12 cents. — Total, $2.38. 



EASTER TIME 

ANEW impetus is given to entertaining when 
Lent leaves us and spring comes in once more. 
The very fulness of the markets with their 
fresh vegetables and fruits suggests the idea of a little 
dinner or luncheon by way of expression of the 
gladness one cannot but feel. 

The two delicious things peculiar to April are brook 
trout and shad roe. Both of these are perfect in 
almost any way they are served, but there is a new 
method with each of them. The trout may be split 
open, laid in a roasting-pan, and lightly buttered; 
then they are to be quickly cooked under a cover for 
about fifteen minutes in a hot oven, or till the flesh 
shows that it is really done, but not browned. ' A cup 
of hot water mixed with a tablespoonful of butter, 
half a teaspoonful of salt, and a saltspoonful of Cay- 
enne is to be kept hot and the fish basted three times 
as they cook. When done they are to be folded to- 
gether again, the gravy well drained from them, and 
set to cool. A half box of gelatine is to be dissolved 
in a cup of cold water and a pint of clear veal or 

29 



30 EASY ENTERTAINING 

chicken stock, not too strong, heated. When it boils 
it is to be poured over the gelatine and seasoned, 
then stirred till clear and strained again through 
flannel. If the stock does not seem transparent when 
first put on, break up an egg shell and mix it with the 
unbeaten white, and stir it in and let it boil up for a 
moment; this clarifies it. Pour this over the fish 
after it becomes cool, and set it on ice. When firm 
turn out on a platter and garnish with watercress and 
lemon. It is best to use a very shallow pan in setting 
the aspic so the fish may be barely covered. 

Shad -roe croquettes are always better than the 
same roe as it naturally comes. To make them take a 
cup of thin cream and mix with a tablespoonful of 
flour and two of butter. Simmer the roes from two 
fish for fifteen minutes, remove the skin and mash 
carefully, so the eggs may not break. Take the sauce 
from the fire, beat in the yolks of two eggs, salt, Cay- 
enne, and a little lemon juice, and put back until it 
thickens; then add the roe and stir well; set away to 
grow perfectly cold; then mould into croquettes and 
dip each into fine crumbs, egg and crumbs again, and 
fry in deep fat. Sauce tartare may be passed with 
these, or they may be served alone, or cucumbers 
with French dressing may accompany them. 

If meat is desired for an Easter meal, a crown 
roast of lamb is a good selection, since it is a spring 



EASY ENTERTAINING 31 

dish. Instead of using the usual pease in the centre, 
try the newer plan of having small French fried po- 
tatoes, either white ones or sweet. If poultry is pre- 
ferred to meat, get two young guinea -hens, cut them 
up and pan them in the oven, basting them well, and 
keeping them covered until the last ten minutes. 
Put a little pan gravy, unthickened, over the pieces 
in serving, and have currant jelly to pass with them. 
Or cut up tender chicken, dip the breast and second 
joints only into batter and fry brown, and serve with 
a rich cream sauce. It is best to remove the bones 
from the dark meat; if this is done and the drum- 
sticks are tender and not too small, they may be used 
also. 

Mushrooms are delicious in the early spring. A 
most delightful way of preparing them is this: Get 
very large ones and peel them. Arrange them on 
rounds of soft toast, stem side up, in a baking -dish, 
and season them by sprinkling with a very little salt 
and white pepper. Simmer two sweetbreads till ten- 
der, take out all the membrane, and cut in small 
pieces. Make just enough white sauce to moisten 
them — two tables poonfuls will be enough. Cook the 
mushrooms fifteen minutes in a very hot oven and 
keep the dish covered tightly. Then take them out, 
pile the sweetbreads in them, a pyramid in each, 
and return to the oven for five minutes more. Lift 



32 EASY ENTERTAINING 

each piece of toast carefully with a pancake -turner, 
and lay it on a hot plate; serve immediately. 

Another spring dish is a combination of crab meat 
and mushrooms. To prepare it take a large cup of 
crab meat, tinned or fresh, and an equal amount of 
fresh mushrooms, peeled and cut into bits. Put a 
slice of onion, chopped very fine, into a saucepan, 
and cook with a tablespoonful of butter; just before 
it begins to brown add a tablespoonful of flour, and 
then a cup of cream, put in slowly as it is stirred. 
When smooth and thick add the mashed yolks of four 
hard-boiled eggs, salt, paprika, and lemon juice to 
taste, and then the crabs and mushrooms. When 
all is blended well and the mixture rather thick, fill 
the crab shells with it, cover the tops with fine 
crumbs and bits of butter, and just brown in a very 
hot oven. Serve with lemon quarters. 

As asparagus is decidedly a dish for Easter-time, it 
may be used in a very attractive salad. Boil one 
bunch, season and chill, while two large carrots are 
also boiled and seasoned. Cut these latter into rings 
after scraping them, and put three or four stalks 
of asparagus into each ring. Serve very cold, with 
French dressing poured over, or pass mayonnaise. 
If the day is warm, it is a good plan to prepare a large 
dish of scraped ice, and lay the salad on this. 

Another novel salad which uses the eggs so appro- 



EASY ENTERTAINING 33 

priate for Easter is called a crown salad. To make it, 
melt a tables poonful of gelatine in cold water, and 
into this dip quarters of hard-boiled eggs; arrange 
them on a flat dish while wet, standing each one up 
near the next, but not touching it, in a circle. Let 
this stand some hours. Get a can of tiny French 
string beans, drain them and cover with French dress- 
ing, and when it is time for the meal arrange them in 
the egg circle, and serve very cold. 

At an Italian grocery one can buy in flat tins a 
delicious mixture something like caviare, called anti- 
pasta. This makes a most appetizing salad arranged 
in the halves of hard-boiled eggs and served with 
lettuce, dressed with oil and vinegar. 

A pretty sweet for a spring luncheon is called a 
violet pudding. To make it, take the juice of a lemon, 
a tablespoonful of sugar, half a cup of water, and a 
level tablespoonful of gelatine. Dissolve the gelatine 
in cold water. Put the sugar in the half cup of water, 
add the lemon juice, and stir till the sugar dissolves. 
Add the gelatine and stir; strain this twice through 
a flannel bag. Take a fancy mould and decorate the 
bottom with large, fresh violets, and slowly add the 
lemon jelly. For the rest of the pudding soak half 
a package of gelatine in half a cup of water for an 
hour. To a pint of pineapple pulp and juice add a 
cup of sugar and simmer till the sugar dissolves; add 



34 EASY ENTERTAINING 

the gelatine and mix well. Take from the fire and 
cool, and then put it into a bowl set in a pan of ice, 
and stir till it begins to set. Beat a pint of cream 
very stiff, and when the pineapple thickens fold this 
in. Pour gently on the lemon jelly, and when firm 
turn out on a round platter and arrange a wreath 
of fresh violets and their leaves around it. 

When Easter comes the first strawberries usually 
appear in market. A very novel dish called aristo- 
crats may be made with one boxful of these. One 
tablespoonful of butter is melted and stirred with one 
of powdered sugar and two of flour; then the stiff 
whites of four eggs are mixed in and teaspoonfuls of 
the paste are put on a baking sheet without touching, 
smoothed out evenly, and cut into squares with a 
knife; four are enough to make at a time. When 
they begin to brown, the sheet is to be drawn to the 
edge of the oven, and two corners are folded together 
so as to form a sort of cornucopia, and then removed 
to cool, and four more made. When all are done and 
cold, whipped cream is put in each, and on it straw- 
berries are laid, as though rolling out. This is a really 
unusually attractive dessert, and one easily prepared. 

One of the choicest dishes for this season is called 
pistache souffle. Get half a pound of pistache nuts, 
scald them and chop fine, and then pound to a 
smooth paste. Beat the yolks of three eggs very 



EASY ENTERTAINING 35 

light, add an ounce of confectioner's sugar and the 
nuts, with the grated rind of a lemon. Beat all till 
it grows pale and thick, and then fold in the stiff 
whites. Have ready some buttered paper souffte^ 
cases, put in the mixture, sprinkle well with confec- 
tioner's sugar, and bake in a moderate oven till they 
puff and brown. These cannot stand a moment, 
and even in carrying them to the table they should 
be covered. They can be put in ten minutes before 
they are needed, or as the course preceding is being 
eaten, and they will be ready. 

One of the delicious new ices which are served in 
glasses after a rather substantial meal is a coffee 
parfait with crystallized mint. The parfait is easily 
made by this rule: Cook a cup of sugar and a cup 
of water till it spins a thread, and then slowly beat 
it into the whites of three eggs, stiffly beaten. When 
it cools put in a cup of very strong coffee, still beat- 
ing, and last, when the mixture is perfectly cold, fold 
in a pint of cream, whipped till firm. Put the whole 
into a pail, with greased paper over it and then a tight 
cover, and bury five hours in ice and salt. In serving, 
fill the glasses lightly, and over each put a spoonful 
of crystallized mint leaves, broken up in good-sized 
pieces. This latter may be bought at the confeo- 
tioner's, or made at home by rolling fresh mint leaves 
in a very thick sugar-and-water syrup, and drying 



36 EASY ENTERTAINING 

them on buttered plates in the oven with the door 
open, sprinkling them with granulated sugar from 
time to time. 

A delicious little nut wafer is this: Beat two eggs 
light, add five level tables poonfuls of flour, a pinch 
of baking-powder, one of salt, half a pound of brown 
sugar and a cup of broken EngHsh walnut meats. 



EASTER MENUS 

SPRINGTIME has no symbol more lovely and 
suggestive than the butterfly, emerging from its 
dark chrysalis into the sunshine, but we seldom 
even remember the beautiful thing when we enter- 
tain, though nothing could be more graceful and 
charming for an Easter dinner or luncheon. 

For a dinner centrepiece select a large flat basket 
similar in shape to your table, round, oval, or oblong, 
and fill it with well-blown roses. Over these arrange 
a little swarm of butterflies on invisible wires, each 
one fastened to a rose so that it will not be stiff, but 
will move in any breath of air. These butterflies 
may be bought in large sheets, beautifully embossed 
and colored, at a stationer's, or they may be cut from 
cardboard and painted with water-colors. Have 
candles which match the color of the roses, with white 
or pale-colored shades decorated with the butterflies. 
For guest-cards choose plain ones, either oblong or 
in narrow, long shape, with a butterfly on each. For 
your final course at dinner have ices moulded in the 
form of butterflies, made of two colors, white and 
37 



38 EASY ENTERTAINING 

pink, green, or chocolate, and lay each one on aspara- 
gus fern or on a large natural rose. 

This spring menu is planned for a small dinner: 

Canape's of anchovies and cheese. 

Clear soup, printaniere. 

Radishes, salted nuts, olives. 

Shad roe with dressed cucumbers. 

Crown roast of lamb filled with new carrots and turnips, creamed; 

Bermuda potatoes. 

Asparagus salad. 

Ices in butterfly forms; small cakes. 

Toasted wafers, cheese, and coffee. 

For the canapes take circles of toast and divide into 
quarters by putting riced egg, white in one and yolk 
in the opposite, and in the other two a relish made by 
mixing half a cup of grated cheese, a tablespoonful 
of creamed butter, half a teaspoonful of paprika, 
and a teaspoonful of anchovy paste. Over all sprinkle 
a French dressing made with a good deal of pepper, 
and put half a pimola in the centre of each circle, 
point down. 

The soup is a strong, clear beef bouillon with tiny 
green French beans and pease and a few shapes of 
carrot in it. The shad roe is to be fried as usual, 
and then arranged on a long platter with a very little 
cream dressing poured over, to prevent the roe from 
being too dry. With this cucumbers are passed sliced, 
and arranged in a long line to look as though the real 



EASY ENTERTAINING 39 

cucumber had not been cut, and then covered with 
French dressing. It is better to pour off this dressing 
before passing, so that the cucumbers may be taken 
on the plate with the roe, not put on small plates at the 
side. 

No meat is so attractive for a spring dinner as a 
fine crown roast of lamb. In cooking it be sure and 
have the upright bones well covered with buttered 
paper so they will not burn, and in serving put a 
white frill on each. The centre is often filled with 
forcemeat balls, or with pease, but for a change try 
using small new carrots cut into cubes, with turnips 
prepared in the same way, and creamed quite stiffly; 
you can add a few pease to the mixture if you wish. 
Have both mint sauce and brown gravy passed with 
this roast. 

At this point a sherbet may be introduced, followed 
by slices of game or chicken with dressed lettuce, and 
the asparagus salad omitted. But for a small dinner 
it is better to have the salad after the roast, and noth- 
ing is more refreshing than asparagus laid on a bed 
of scraped ice, with a French dressing, the usual ac- 
companiment of any dinner salad. With asparagus, 
however, an exception is often made, and chilled 
mayonnaise is allowable, served in a small bowl set 
in a larger one, with ice between the two. 

After this comes the pretty course of butterfly 



40 EASY ENTERTAINING 

ices, each one with a rose, and small cakes, and then 
the cheese toasted wafers, and coffee. 

Tulips come in April and suggest a charming 
Dutch setting for a luncheon. After laying your table 
with everything pretty in the way of doilies, have a 
long green box put in the centre, following the out- 
lines of the table, round, oblong, or square, and in it 
plant yellow tulips till it is full. Then around it 
on the table place Delft figures in blue and white 
china, each with a basket, and fill these last with 
yellow bonbons. If you use candles, have them pale 
yellow with shades to match, with blue and white 
Dutch figures, or landscapes with windmills painted 
on them. Have blue and white china, or white with 
a yellow border, and have one of the courses served 
in little Delft china shoes. Either the little figures 
or the shoes make charming mementoes of the day. 
Do not try to carry out the Dutch idea in the menu, 
as every-day dishes are more appetizing. 

Fruit cocktails. 

Cream of clam soup with whipped cream; hot wafers. 

Radishes, salted nuts, olives. 

Creamed lobster in Dutch shoes. 

Sweetbread souffle' with creamed asparagus tips. 

Roast squab on toast; potato cradles; hot rolls; currant jelly. 

Fresh tomatoes with cheese slices and mayonnaise. 

Ice-cream in shape of yellow tulips, or rice glace'. Macaroons 

princesse. 

Coffee. Bonbons. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 41 

To prepare the fruit cocktails shred some pineapple, 
add grapefruit pulp and seeded white grapes, cover 
with hot sugar-and-water syrup, and let it stand till 
cold; then flavor with sherry or a little rum, and put 
into the double glasses which have scraped ice be- 
tween the two, or else into tall glasses which have 
been chilled by filling with ice for an hour before using. 

The lobster should be fresh, and cut in rather large 
bits before creaming; shrimps are good prepared in 
the same way if lobster cannot be had. The souffle 
is especially delicate prepared by this recipe: Simmer 
a pair of sweetbreads, and chop fine; there should 
be two cupfuls; take a tablespoonful of butter and 
one of flour, add a cup of cream and one of sweet- 
bread stock; put in half a cup of soft white bread 
crumbs and cook two minutes; then put in the sweet- 
breads, the yolks of three eggs, beaten, salt, Cayenne, 
and a little chopped parsley, with two drops of onion 
juice. Let it boil up, take from the fire and cool; add 
the beaten whites of the eggs and pour into a buttered 
dish or mould, and bake in a moderate oven thirty- 
five minutes; serve with tomato or mushroom sauce. 
Creamed asparagus tips are especially nice with this 
dish. 

Be sure and select large and plump squab, and fill 
them with a well-seasoned crumb stuffing; roast 
with a slice of bacon over the breast of each. To 



42 EASY ENTERTAINING 

accompany these take good-sized potatoes, peel, and 
cut a thick sHce from each; scoop out the inside and 
rub with salt; drop into deep fat and cook brown. 
While these are draining in the oven on brown paper 
cut the rest of the potatoes up into straws, dropping 
into ice-water as you do so, and then, after wiping, 
cook these in deep fat and fill the cradles, heaping 
well; serve very hot. For the salad try this, which is 
new and good: Peel and cut into thick slices some 
firm tomatoes; put one slice on a plate and cover 
with a very thin piece of American cheese, and spread 
with mayonnaise; put on a second slice of tomato and 
add a heaping spoonful of mayonnaise; press half a 
stoned olive or pimola into this, and serve on white 
lettuce with water-crackers. 

Try and get from the caterer some pretty yellow 
tulips in ice-cream for your last course; or, make this 
excellent rice glace: 

Dissolve a quarter of a box of gelatine in cold water, 
and add half a cup of boiling water; mix well with two 
cups of boiled rice, hot, and stir till cold; add a cup 
of cream well whipped, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, 
and a little vanilla. Chop three tablespoonfuls of 
preserved ginger and three figs, cover with sherry, 
and when it is well absorbed add all to the rice. Put 
all into a covered mould and bury in ice and salt for 
two hours. Turn it out and decorate the form with 



EASY ENTERTAINING 43 

candied or maraschino cherries and green angelica, 
and surround with whipped cream. 

The macaroons to eat with the dessert are to be 
made the day they are needed, if possible. Take two 
and a half cups of rolled oats, two teaspoonfuls of 
baking-powder, half a teaspoonful of salt, three even 
tablespoonfuls of butter, one cup of sugar, three eggs 
beaten separately, and a little vanilla. Cream the 
butter and sugar, add the yolks of the eggs, then the 
oatmeal and baking-powder, the vanilla, and last the 
whites of the eggs. Drop in very small teaspoonfuls 
on buttered tins three or four inches apart, and bake 
in a slow oven till brown. Remove from the tins 
while warm. 

In place of these macaroons there are some small 
cakes easily made at home also. Bake any nice cake 
batter in small, rather deep round tins, and while 
warm cut a circle in the top of each and take out 
the inside; fill with whipped cream, sweetened and 
flavored, put on top, and cover with boiled frosting, 
with chocolate or vanilla in it. 



EASTER LUNCHEONS AND BREAKFASTS 

WHEN Easter-time comes once again the spring 
sunshine and flowers and the reaction from 
winter always suggest that most charming 
sort of entertaining, the Uttle luncheon. Something 
beautiful is offered to the hostess who desires a novelty 
for her table — nothing less than a basket of pussy- 
willow twigs, filled with spring flowers, the most 
suggestive of all possible centrepieces. 

To make this a foundation is necessary, either a 
plain basket of attractive shape or one of unpainted 
wire; over either of these the pussy-willow twigs are 
laid in regular order and fastened with invisible wire, 
and others are laid so as to cover the handle. Then 
trailing arbutus is lightly heaped in the basket, or 
it is filled with hepaticas and their leaves; or with 
wild violets or trilliums or other spring flowers from 
the woods. Of course no hothouse flowers could ap- 
propriately go with the pussies, but even city people 
nowadays can get arbutus on any corner. 

As to the table, it should be simple, in keeping with 
44 



EASY ENTERTAINING 45 

the centrepiece. It may be laid with doiUes or with 
a hemstitched luncheon square put on crosswise, or 
it may have the ordinary cloth, with a pretty white 
lace centrepiece. At each cover should be a plate 
to hold the smaller ones of the first course, with a 
bread-and-butter plate, a glass, and sufficient silver 
— not overmuch. Candles will not be necessary unless 
the day should happen to be dark; in that case they 
may be very pale pink, with shades to match, to 
correspond with the arbutus or hepaticas. If violets 
are used the candles may be white, with violet shades. 
If there are place-cards they may be small and per- 
fectly plain, with a little knot of flowers, like those 
on the table, attached with long, very narrow rib- 
bons. 

As to a menu, this, too, should have a touch of 
spring about it. The first course may be grapefruit, 
or, if one is tired of that, the luncheon may begin with 
the soup. 

Grapefruit. 

Cream of tomato soup; wafers. 

Olives; salted nuts; radishes. 

Creamed scallops in little baking-dishes. 

Broiled sweetbreads; potato balls, creamed; hot rolls. 

Pea salad on lettuce; cream cheese; wafers. 

Coffee ice-cream in glasses. 

Coffee. 

The grapefruit may be removed from the shells in 

good-sized pieces and piled in tall glasses, with just 



46 EASY ENTERTAINING 

a maraschino cherry on each. This seems a change 
for a light luncheon instead of serving it as usual in 
the skins. 

The soup is served in cups; it may have a teaspoon- 
ful of whipped cream on top, or be served without 
this. 

Scallops are very good creamed, though one sel- 
dom sees them prepared in this way; they need to 
be scalded in enough water to cover them, then 
dropped into a little white sauce, about a cupful to a 
pint of scallops, and just brought to the boiling-point 
and served at once. In place of this dish, if one cannot 
get scallops, may be lobster Newburg; or any plain 
white fish may be cooked, picked up, and creamed, 
with plenty of seasoning. 

Sweetbreads are just in season now, and very nice; 
two pairs, if good-sized, will serve ten people; put 
them into cold water for an hour, changing the water 
twice; then put them on the fire in cold water, and 
very slowly simmer them for twenty minutes, and 
drop them at once into cold water to blanch them. 
Take out all the pipes and membrane, and divide 
each into three or four pieces, cutting across; put 
these on a platter and set a weight on them to press 
them out flat; before luncheon brush each over with 
melted butter, sprinkle with salt and fine bread 
crumbs, and broil over a hot fire for a moment, only 



EASY ENTERTAINING 47 

enough to brown them, as they are already cooked. 
Arrange them on a platter, add lemon quarters and 
parsley, and pass, following with a sauce-boat of rich 
white sauce. 

Tea is often served at luncheon with this main 
course, passing the cups, with sugar and cream. When 
this is done no coffee is offered at the close of the 
meal, though it is often served later in the drawing- 
room. 

The salad is an odd and pretty one; to make it, 
get very large lemons and scoop out the inside, filUng 
them with French pease mixed with stiff mayonnaise. 
Arrange the lemons on white lettuce leaves, putting 
each in a sort of cup made by the curl of the lettuce; 
pass cream cheese and wafers with the salad, or make 
cream cheese balls and put them on the platter, put- 
ting the lemons around the edge. 

For the dessert scald a quart of thin cream with a 
cup of sugar; add a half-cup of very strong black 
coffee, and strain; when cold, freeze this until smooth 
and add a cup of powdered macaroon crumbs; take 
out the dasher, scrape down the sides, and repack 
until needed. Then heap the cream in tall glasses, 
and top each with a spoonful of whipped cream; the 
glasses are cone-shaped and quite deep. Pass sponge- 
cake or angel-food with the course, and follow with 
some dainty bonbons if the coffee is omitted. 



48 EASY ENTERTAINING 

Another little Easter luncheon might have for a cen- 
trepiece a large, shallow basket filled with planted he- 
paticas, bedded in moss, with hepatica leaves conceal- 
ing the edge. Or if one cannot get wild flowers a 
beautiful table may be laid with yellow jonquils 
massed in the centre, and with a most attractive first 
course arranged on the table to add further to the 
fresh yellow and green; then, if candles are needed, 
yellow ones may be chosen. 

Grapefruit with creme-de-menthe cherries. 

Cream of clam soup; hot wafers. 

Chicken and rice, in baking-dishes. 

French chops; fresh mushrooms; creamed new potatoes; hot 

rolls; tea. 

Easter egg salad; cream cheese; wafers; olives. 

Marshmallow trifle; sponge-cake. 

Cut the grapefruit into halves, and loosen the pulp 
at the edges; cut out the core, and fill the centre with 
powdered sugar; all around the edge of the fruit put 
green creme-de-menthe cherries cut into halves, and 
lay a jonquil, with its leaves, on each small plate, 
laid in a larger plate. 

For the soup, have cream of clams, strained, with 
a little whipped cream on each cup; or make a nice 
cream of corn by simmering half a can with a quart of 
rich milk, thickening it a little and straining into hot 
cups. Follow this with something new in place of 



EASY ENTERTAINING 49 

the usual fish course. Make two cups of nice creamed 
chicken, cutting it up smaller than usual; cook as 
much rice, and while it is hot season it well, and line 
little baking-dishes with it, and heap the centre with 
the chicken; over all put a spoonful of rice and thick 
white sauce, and cover it with a layer of grated cheese; 
put the dishes into a hot oven until the cheese is 
browned and melted, and serve hot. 

The mushrooms served with the chops are the 
fresh ones, so delicious at this season; they may be 
peeled, dipped into melted butter, and broiled, or 
they may be cut into large pieces and lightly fried 
in butter and served on rounds of toast. The Easter 
salad following this is simple but nice. To make it 
take at least two eggs for each guest and boil them 
hard; remove the yolks whole, and arrange them in 
a nest made of celery straws covered with the chopped 
white of the eggs; cut the celery into pieces four 
inches long, and divide in straight, thin pieces, and 
lay on a bed of white lettuce leaves. If the celery 
should not be found in market the nest may be made 
of the lettuce alone, the eggs piled in the centre. 
Pass mayonnaise, with crackers and cream cheese, 
with the dish. 

For the dessert, marshmallow trifle is easily made. 
Cut up half a pound of marshmallows and mix lightly 
with a cup of cream flavored with sherry and whipped 



50 EASY ENTERTAINING 

stiff; pile in glasses, and add a cherry or a fresh or 
preserved strawberry to each. 

Breakfasts, especially club breakfasts, are always 
in evidence at spring-time; but, after all, they differ 
so slightly from luncheons as to be practically identi- 
cal, except in the hour of service, the breakfast com- 
ing at twelve o'clock. 

Of course, if one wishes to give something very cor- 
rect the breakfast closes with waffles and maple 
syrup instead of an ice; or coffee, crackers, and cheese 
follow the salad. But usually the ordinary routine 
of a luncheon is observed. This menu is seasonable: 

Grapefruit. 

Boxxillon; hot wafers. 

Radishes; salted nuts; olives. 

Smelts, with sauce tartare; potato balls; rolls. 

Broiled squab; lettuce with French dressing. 

Coffee; Brie cheese; toasted hard crackers. 

Such a breakfast as this is suitable for a club; no 
vegetables are served, and the sweet is omitted. In 
place of the squab, chicken could be substituted, as 
in the following: 

Grapefruit. 

Lobster Newburg in cases. 

Broiled chicken; French pease; new potatoes; rolls. 

Lettuce and tomato salad, with French dressing. 

Almond ice-cream; fancy cakes. 

Coffee. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 51 

At a very large breakfast the meal may be still 
simpler: first bouillon, then chicken or squab, with 
pease or lettuce; then ice-cream, and coffee last of 
all. 



ENTERTAINING ON MAY DAY 

MAY day always suggests the setting up of the 
May pole and the charming festivities as- 
sociated with the pretty custom. This is 
probably why the hostess of a dinner or luncheon, 
or of a children s party, loves to have on her table 
some reminder of the tradition, usually in a little May 
pole of her own. It is appropriate for any sort of a 
meal, even to the dinner-party, which at this time of 
year is always informal and simple. 

To make it the carpenter must be called in to fashion 
a pole three feet high, an inch or more in diameter, 
its base fastened in so heavy a round of wood that 
there will be no danger of its toppling over. Then, 
when it is ready, it is wound from the base to the 
top with ribbons in alternate colors, pink and white, 
or pink and rose, preferably, and when the top is 
reached a bow is tied; under this, tacked to the top 
of the pole, are ribbons an inch wide or less, one for 
each guest. These are drawn lightly down so that 
they will slightly dip as they descend, and one is 
52 




From " Harper's Bazar." 
Copyright, 1907, by Harper & Brother 

May Day Party Cake. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 53 

fastened in front of each cover, pinned to the cloth. 
Just before the guests arrive the wooden base of the 
pole is concealed by a flat mass of pink flowers; pink 
and white English daisies are loveliest of all for this 
particular day, and they can be stuck in sand in shal- 
low dishes to support the stems and give the effect of 
planting; a Httle green will conceal the dishes. From 
the top of the pole a few light vines may fall on the 
ribbons half the way down their length, and where 
each ribbon is pinned a knot of the daisies with a bit 
of vine may be fastened. Apple blossoms may be 
used if daisies cannot be found, or mountain-laurel, 
but not hothouse flowers, unless others cannot be 
secured. 

Under the ribbons on the table are to be the little 
dishes of salted nuts, candies, olives, and small iced 
cakes; candles, used only at dinner in spring, may 
stand quite outside on the edge of the table; these 
match the flowers, pink, with pink or rose shades. 

The menu for a dinner in May ought not to be 
long or heavy. This is a practical one: 

Clear soup. 

Radishes, olives, salted nuts. 

Soft-shell crabs on toast. 

Leg-roast of lamb, mint jelly; new potatoes; French pease. 

Lettuce and tomato salad, French dressing; wafers. 

Strawberry shortcake with whipped cream. 

Coffee. 



54 EASY ENTERTAINING 

Crabs on toast make a delicious dish for dinner, 
but any hostess who does not find them in her inland 
market can easily substitute some small fish, such as 
perch, merely spUtting it, broiUng it nicely, and serv- 
ing it on watercress. 

The mint jelly, used now more than the mint sauce, 
is made by preparing a plain lemon jelly, and before 
the gelatine is added a bunch of bruised mint is sin> 
mered for three minutes in it; then it is strained and 
gelatine and a little green fruit coloring added, and 
it is put into a mould. 

The shortcake is one especially planned for a din- 
ner; it is a deUcate sponge-cake baked in a circle 
mould; the centre is filled with large sweetened ber- 
ries, and whipped cream is put all around the edge. 
Or the circle may be filled with strawberry ice-cream; 
a plain vanilla cream is first made, then a quart of 
berries are crushed, sweetened, and heated, and while 
warm put through a sieve, and when the cream is 
half frozen they are stirred in. It is a good plan to 
put fresh berries all around the cake even when the 
ice-cream is used. 

A second little dinner may have an additional 
course; or, the third course may be served after the 
soup, and the fish course omitted: 



EASY ENTERTAINING 55 

Clear tomato soup. 

Radishes, salted nuts, olives. 

Brook trout on watercress. 

Chicken in rice mould, mushroom sauce. 

Roast lamb; French fried potatoes; asparagus. 

Lettuce with Roquefort cheese; wafers and French dressing. 

Strawberry ice-cream in glasses; cake. 

Coffee. 

Brook trout are always delicious and are to be had 
in May in nearly every market in the country; they 
need to be lightly broiled or fried and served on 
watercress. The next course is one even an inexperi- 
enced hostess may venture to try, since it always 
comes out well and is very good; boil enough rice to 
have two cupfuls; season it, and while hot press it on 
the sides and bottom of a well-buttered mould. 

Cut up two cups of cold chicken and mix with half 
a cup of white sauce; season this also and fill the centre 
of the mould, and bake in a pan of water forty 
minutes, covered tightly. Meanwhile make a large 
cup of rich white sauce, using cream instead of milk, 
and mix with a cup of finely chopped mushrobms, 
fresh or canned, simmered until they are cooked, if 
fresh, or well heated if canned. Turn out the mould 
and pour the sauce around it. 

For the salad mince some Roquefort cheese and 
sprinkle over the lettuce after putting on the French 
dressing. 

A Uttle luncheon in May may also have the May 



56 EASY ENTERTAINING 

pole on the table. Or a large mound of apple blossoms 

may be the centrepiece, with others without stems 

scattered over the cloth. This menu, too, should be 

light. 

Cream of tomato soup in cups. 
Shrimps and pease in paper cases. 
Chicken loaf with olives; creamed new potatoes; hot rolls; tea. 
Strawberry salad; cream cheese and wafers. 
Pistache ice-cream in glasses; cake. 

The fish course in this luncheon is a new one; 
to make it clean a can of shrimps and put them into 
ic&- water for an hour; wipe dry and pick them up in 
small bits; drain a can of French pease, mix with 
the shrimps, season well, and heat in a cup of white 
sauce; serve in paper cases or small baking-dishes 
very hot. 

To make the chicken loaf stew a three-pound chicken 
till tender; remove the bones and put the meat 
through the chopper, with two thin slices of salt pork. 
Add half a cup of bread crumbs, a beaten egg, half a 
teaspoonful of grated nutmeg, a saltspoonful of black 
pepper, and a teaspoonful of salt; mix well and bake 
three hours in a mould, keeping it covered for the 
last one; baste frequently with a little of the stock 
the meat was cooked in. Take the rest of it, strain, 
and add a cup of cream with a very little thickening, 
and mix in a cup of stoned olives; pour around the 
loaf when turned out, and serve hot, sliced. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 57 

For the salad stem large fine berries and arrange 
them in lettuce leaves, white ones, cup-shaped; just 
before serving pour over them a French dressing made 
with lemon juice and oil, and pass cream cheese and 
wafers. 

For the dessert make a rich white ice-cream and 
flavor with pistache; color a pale green with fruit 
paste, and serve in tall glasses with a little whipped 
cream topping each one. Sponge-cake or angel's- 
food is nice with this cream, or lady-fingers rolled 
in soft-boiled icing and then rolled in chopped alm- 
onds. Coffee may be served after leaving the table. 

Another luncheon given when buttercups grow 
thickly may have a brilliant table if a very large 
basket or pan is placed in the centre and filled with 
the blooming little plants, the edge of the dish con- 
cealed with small ferns. The menu might begin with 
berries on their stems. 

Strawberries. 

Bouillon with whipped cream. 

Chicken breasts; creamed potatoes; currant jelly; hot rolls. 

Cheese and nut balls, French dressing; wafers. 

Macaroon ice-cream; angel's-food. 

Coffee 

Pan the chicken breasts and cover with a sauce 
made by adding the beaten yolks of two eggs to a 
cupful of rich white sauce, simmering a moment 
to cook the eggs. 



58 EASY ENTERTAINING 

The salad requires a cup of cream cheese and a 
cup of finely chopped English walnuts, mixed, sea- 
soned with a very little salt and Cayenne; these are 
rolled into balls as large as a butternut and laid on 
lettuce with French dressing. 

The ice-cream is a plain vanilla, with a cup of pow- 
dered macaroon crumbs stirred in when it is half 
frozen. 

For a children's May-day party make a very large 
cake by this simple rule: half a cup of butter, a cup 
and a half of sugar, whites of four eggs, half a cup of 
water, two cups of flour, two level teaspoonfuls of 
baking-powder, juice and grated rind of a lemon; 
beat all five minutes and bake three-quarters of an 
hour. Ice this prettily, and when it is cold put a 
long, thick, wooden knitting-needle in the centre, 
pushing it well in, and wind it with narrow ribbons in 
two colors; have ready some little jointed dolls 
dressed in crepe-paper, and put a small-headed hat- 
pin down the back of each under the hair; push these 
pins down into the edge of the cake. Then raise the 
inner arm of each doll and tie a ribbon to it from the 
top of the little pole. This cake will make a lovely 
centrepiece for the party table, for the effect of the 
gay little dolls dancing among the ribbons will charm 
the children. At the end give a doll to each child. 

For the supper creamed chicken in little paper cases 



EASY ENTERTAINING 59 

is a good first course served witli sandwiches and 
small cups of cocoa, and, if the children are small 
enough to appreciate them, animal crackers. Or 
there might be creamed chicken, with creamed 
chopped potatoes in the cases. 

The ice-cream may be a plain white vanilla sliced; 
or there may be meringue shells filled with the ice- 
cream. 

Best of all, in the eyes of the children, are the 
crackers holding mottoes and paper caps; after these 
latter are put on there may be a delightful dance 
about a large May pole. 



LUNCHEONS FOR MAY DAYS 

WHEN the fruit-trees bloom in the spring we 
always think of Japan, where cherry-blos- 
som time is a prolonged national fete. Why 
not borrow a suggestion from the land of artists for 
a May luncheon? 

Invitations may be sent out written on rice paper 
decorated with little fans and umbrellas, or sketches 
of Japanese girls in kimonas. The hostess may wear 
a pretty kimona herself on the luncheon day, if she 
chooses, with hair arranged in a knot on top of her 
head and fastened with long pins, or she may merely 
use the Japanese idea in the decorations of her house 
and lunch-table. In parlors and dining-room, in 
addition to jars of fruit blossoms on top of sideboards 
and glass-cabinets and bookcases, there should also be 
long vines of wistaria hanging down in graceful dra- 
pings, for wistaria belongs especially to Japan. Both 
the ordinary purple and the white varieties are used, 
but the former is the more effective. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 61 

The round tables should be laid as usual with pretty 
doilies, but there is opportunity also for using some 
handsome piece of Japanese embroidery for a centre- 
piece. G«t a good-sized Japanese umbrella decorated 
in pale grays and purples, and stand it open in the 
middle of the table, supporting it with crossed pieces 
of green-painted wood such as are used for Christmas 
trees, and conceal these with vines. Cover the 
umbrella top lightly with wistaria, trailing blossoms 
and leaves, and let them hang rather over the edge, 
and you will have a most beautiful and unusual 
table. 

Of course Japanese china should be used as far as 
possible for the meal, and place-plates are really 
essential to give the table real harmony of setting 
at the first. Place-cards, too, should be chosen 
with an eye to Japanese decoration, and the pretty 
bonbon-dishes of glass, tall, with twisted stems, may 
be filled with California cherries with their leaves, 
tied in little bunches in contrasting colors. The low 
silver dishes may have candied cherries in them, 
with preserved ginger and little green crystallized 
plums and pieces of pineapple, and still other small 
dishes may hold the delicious Japanese nuts which 
look and taste like raisins. It is better to omit en- 
tirely the usual candies and chocolates. This lunch- 
eon has hints of Japan in it: 



62 EASY ENTERTAINING 

California cherries. 

Cream of green-pea soup with croutons. 

Radishes, salted nuts, olives. 

Filet of flounder with sauce tartare, and fried cucumbers. 

Broiled mushrooms on toast, with Japanese umbrellas. 

Slices of young duckling; creamed new potatoes; crab-apple 

jelly. 

Cherry salad; cream cheese and wafers. 

Individual cherry ices with cherry blossoms; small cakes. 

Coffee; crystallized fruits; Japanese nuts. 

Arrange finger-bowls on the place-plates before 
the guests come to the table, and at the last moment 
drop into them some of the tiny Japanese flowers which 
open as they become wet. Pass the cherries in the 
tall dishes, but be quite sure there are enough to 
permit the dishes, still prettily filled, to remain on 
the table all through the meal by way of adornment. 
Follow with a delicate cream of pea soup, either 
with croutons or with whipped cream. Have the 
flounders made into filets at the fish-market if pos- 
sible; if not, merely cut them into strips, remove the 
skin and bones, and bend into turban shape 
before dipping into crumbs and frying in deep fat. 
Serve a generous amount of stiff sauce tartare with 
these, and cucumbers, cut into three-inch pieces 
as large around as one's finger, rolled in flour and 
fried. 

Mushrooms are in season in May and nothing could 
be more delicious for an entree. After peeling them 



EASY ENTERTAINING 63 

rub the smooth side well with butter, and after ta- 
king out the stem put a bit of butter, Cayenne, 
and salt into the cavity. Broil the smooth side 
first and then turn and cook the other. Serve on 
circles of toast dipped in melted butter and lemon 
juice, and stand a little Japanese umbrella in each 
one. 

At this time of the year young ducklings make a 
very nice luncheon course; try taking the breasts 
and second joints and cooking them in the oven for 
half an hour in a covered pan, sprinkling with 
chopped onion, salt, and Cayenne, chopped parsley, 
and melted butter. Baste frequently, and uncover 
at the last to brown. Lay the pieces on squares of 
fried hominy with a little of the strained gravy poured 
over; or have crescents of hominy on the plate with 
the duckling. Creamed new potatoes in paper cases 
may be served with this. 

For the salad, get a quart of the dark-red Cali- 
fornia cherries and stone them. Fill the cavities 
with bits of English walnuts and lay on white lettuce 
hearts, covering all with a French dressing in which 
the cherry juice has been mixed. Sprinkle all lightly 
with finely chopped parsley. This is a most de- 
licious salad, especially with cream cheese and 
wafers. 

For a final course have a pretty pink ice or ice- 



64 EASY ENTERTAINING 

cream, and after freezing press small individual moulds 
full and turn out on a platter; surround with a wreath 
of cherry blossoms and on each form put a tiny 
Japanese figure, such as costs but a few cents, yet is 
moulded and painted most artistically. The effect 
of the little cross-legged figures among the flowers 
is most quaint and charming. With these ices you 
can have pretty little cakes iced in white or pink, 
each with a candied cherry pressed in the top, to 
offer with the ices. Serve the coffee in Japanese cups, 
and pass the crystallized fruits and nuts with it. 
The city hostess who cannot get natural cherry blos^ 
soms or wistaria for this luncheon will find beautiful 
and artistic imitations in the Japanese shops which 
will do almost as well. 

Another May luncheon may well utilize the pansies 
which are everywhere both in city and in country 
in May. A low mound of them growing, with their 
leaves, always is lovely, either in purple, or in yellow, 
or in the two colors mixed. Or, if one wishes to have 
a strawberry luncheon while the fruit is still a deli- 
cious novelty of the spring, one may have a centre- 
piece embroidered in strawberries and use a slender 
silver vase of red carnations upon it, and have the 
other linen and lace on the table all in white, the 
strawberry idea reappearing at intervals in the 
meal. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 65 

Strawberry cocktail. 

Almond soup with whipped cream and hot wafers. 

Radishes, salted nuts, olives. 

Crab meat, Newburg, served in green peppers. 

French chops with asparagus; pease and new potatoes. 

Tomato and mushroom salad; cream cheese and wafers. 

Strawberry ice or jelly with cream and whole fruit. Cakes. 

Coffee; frosted strawberries. 

For the cocktail, mash a quart of berries, add the 
juice of one lemon and one orange, two cups of sugar, 
and six cups of water. Leave for two hours, then stir 
till all the sugar is dissolved, and strain through a 
jelly-bag. Put on ice till very cold and serve in tall 
glasses, well chilled, with three strawberries sliced 
in each glass. If the day is very warm a little shaved 
ice may be added. 

The soup, which is very delicate and delicious, 
is simply made: Take a cup of blanched and chopped 
almonds, add a quart of thin cream, and let them 
simmer five minutes. Thicken a very little, add salt 
and a little white pepper, and strain; pour over this 
a cup of whipped cream and beat all till foamy; 
serve very hot, in heated cups, with hot wafers. 

Prepare for the crab meat the usual Newburg 
mixture: a cup of cream, the beaten yolks of three 
eggs, salt, and Cayenne; cook till it thickens, add two 
tables poonfuls of sherry, put in the crab meat, and 
heat thoroughly; serve in little baking-dishes, or 
in paper cases, or in green peppers. 



66 EASY ENTERTAINING 

For the salad, peel and chill tomatoes and put on 
ice. Take six large mushrooms, peel and break in 
good-sized pieces, and saute them in a very little 
butter for three minutes, adding two drops of onion 
juice and a sprinkling of celery salt and paprika; then 
cool, and later chill thoroughly. Scoop out the in- 
side of the tomatoes, mix the mushrooms with may- 
onnaise, fill, and put a heaping spoonful of may- 
onnaise on each. 



SPRING MENUS FOR FOUR WEEKS 



Sunday 

BKEAKPAST 

Creamed codfish in baked potatoes 

poi)-overs; coffee. 

Waffles. 

DINNER 

Tomato bisque. 
Roast beef; browned potatoes; new 

carrots in cream. 

Spanish cream with preserved fruit. 

Coffee. 

SUPPER 

Cold sliced roast beef; potato salad 

with mayonnaise; rolls; coffee. 

Pears and whipped cream ; chocolate 

cake. 



Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal and cream. 

Frizzled dried beef; fried potatoes 

rolls; coffee 

LUNCHEON 

Parsley omelette; Saratoga chips; 

cocoa. 

Chocolate cake (from Sunday). 

DINNER 

Beef broth (from Sunday) with 

barley. 
Lamb stew; macaroni and toma- 
toes (from Sunday); diced 
turnips. 
Rice supreme. Coffee. 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Boiled eggs; corn bread; coffee. 
Wheat griddle-cakes and syrup. 

LUNCHEON 

Lamb croquettes with border of 

pease; tea. 
Lettuce and mayonnaise; 



DINNER (company) 

Cream of clam soup. 
Fresh salmon, sliced; egg sauce; 

potato balls. 

Roast of veal; mushrooms; new 

potatoes; spinach. 

Lettuce and grapefruit salad. 

Pistache ice-cream; cakes. 

Coffee. 



Wednesday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal and cream. 
Spanish omelette; toast; coffee. 

luncheon 

Cream toast with grated cheese, 

browned; diced fried potatoes; 

tea. 

Cake (from Tuesday). 

DINNER 

Veal (from Tuesday) reheated; 

chopped mushrooms in gravy; 

pease; potatoes. 

Watercress or lettuce with French 

dressing. 

French apricot tart. 



Cofiee. 



Thursday 

BREAKFAST 

Bacon and eggs; potato cakes; 
toast strips. 
Coffee-cake. 

LUNCHEON 

Vegetable cutlets with brown sauce; 
hot rolls; cocoa. 
Sliced oranges. 

DINNER 

Clear soup (from veal bones). 
Veal chops, tomato sauce; string- 
beans; potatoes. 
Rhubarb and nut jelly with cream. 
Cofiee. 



67 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal. 
Finnan-haddie, creamed ; hot baking- 
powder biscuita ; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Eggs in ramekins; rice croquettes; 

tea. 

String-bean salad (from Thursday) 

with mayonnaise. 

DINNER 

Slices of halibut, fried ; creamed new 

carrots; potatoes. 

Lettuce or chicory with French 

dressing. 

Almond blanc-mange. 

Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Broiled bacon in baked potatoes; 



toast; cofTee. 
Orange marmalade 



LUNCHEON 

Fish pudding (from Friday); hot 

rolls; tea. 

Cream puffs. 

DINNER 

Baked veal loaf with brown gravy; 

spinach; potatoes. 

Lettuce salad. 

Cabinet pudding. Coffee. 



Sunday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 

Chicken-liver omelette; muffins; 

coffee. 



Chicken pie; baked corn pudding; 

potatoes. 

Asparagus salad. 

Frozen lemon sherbet; cake. 

Coffee. 

SUPPER 

Creamed chicken and green peppers; 

hot biscuits; coffee. 

Hard-boiled eggs and'mayonnaise on 

lettuce; olives; wafers. 

Preserves and cake. 



Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal and cream. 

Broiled salt mackerel with cream 

sauce; toast; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Cold sliced veal loaf (from Saturday) ; 
hot Boston brown bread; tea. 
Preserves and cake. 

DINNER 

Chicken soup with rice. 

Hamburg steak a la Porterhouse with 

diced vegetables; rice croquettes. 

Peach fritters, foamy sauce. 

Coffee. 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Eggs baked in rolls; cream toast; 
hashed brown potatoes; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Hamburg steak (from Monday) 

hashed with peppers; biscuits; 

tea. 

Cake (from Sunday) in finger lengths, 

covered with jam. 

DINNER 

Cream of spinach soup. 

Pot roast; string-beans; potatoes. 

Rhubarb pie. 

Coffee. 



Wednesday 

BREAKFAST 

Bacon; creamed potatoes; muffins; 
coffee; coffee-cake. 

LUNCHEON (company) 

Cream of clam soup with whipped 

cream. 
Soft-shell crabs, tartare sauce, in 

green peppers. 

Broiled sweetbreads; French peaae; 

now potatoes. 

Pineapple salad. 

Burnt almond ice-cream; cakes. 

Coffee. 

DINNER 

Cream of clam soup (from luncheon) 
Sliced pot roa.st (from Tuesday) io 
casserole with tomatoes; maca- 
roni. 
Fruit and cake. 
Coffee. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



69 



Thursday 

BREAKFAST 

Eggs scrambled with tomatoes (from 

Wednesday); toast; coffee. 

Waffles. 

LUNCHEON 

Creamed sweetbreads (from Wednes- 
day) on toast; diced potatoes 

in cream; tea. 
Stewed rhubarb and cookies. 

DINNER 

Veal cutlet with egg; mashed pota- 
toes; new cabbage, creamed. 
Lettuce and French dressing; cream 
cheese and wafers. 
Lemon meringue pie. 
Cofifee. 



Sunday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 

Kidneys and bacon with brown 

sauce; pop-overs; coffee. 

DINNER 

Rice and tomato soup. 

Roast leg of lamb; spinach; creamed 

whole potatoes; currant jelly. 

Asparagus salad. 

Vanilla mousse. 

Coffee. 

SUPPER 

Scallops, creamed in chafing-dish; 
Parker House rolls; sandwiches; 

coffee. 
Fresh pineapple and sponge-cake. 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal and cream. 

Broiled panfish; potato omelette; 

muffins; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Baked cheese pudding; olives; tea. 

Watercress and French dressing, with 

egg quarters. 

Fruit. 

DINNER 

Broiled shad; potatoes; spinach. 

Lettuce or string-beans and French 

dressing. 

Crackers and cheese and coffee. 



Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Eappered herrings; corn bread; 

coffee. 

Griddle-cakes and maple syrup. 

LUNCHEON 

Rice croquettes with cheese sauce; 

rolls (from Sunday) ; tea. 

Sponge-cake (from Sunday) and 

whipped cream. 

DINNER 

Lamb reheated in gravy, mint jelly; 

potatoes; string-beans. 

Cocoanut custard, baked. 

Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Boiled rice and sliced bananas and 

cream; 
Parsley omelette; French-fried po- 
tatoes; hot rolls; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Shad roe (from Friday) with bacon; 

toast; tea. 

Coffee eclairs. 

DINNER 

Cream of beet soup. 

Mutton steaks; creamed cabbage; 

fried halved potatoes. 

Chocolate jelly. 

Coffee. 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 
Omelette with fine herbs; French- 
fried potatoes; whole-wheat muf- 
fins; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Clam cutlets; biscuits; tea. 

Lettuce and maj'onnaise, with cheese 

crackers. 



DINNER 

Roast filet of veal; spinach; whole- 
boiled potatoes with butter sauce. 
Lettuce and French dressin?. 
Custard souffl6. Coffee. 



70 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



Wednesday 

BREAKFAST 

Broiled strips of ham; hashed 

creamed potatoes; toast; coffee. 

Orange marmalade. 



LUNCHEON 

Veal croquettes (from Tuesday), 

with creamed pease; tea. 

Fresh spice-cakes and fruit. 

DINNER 

Tomato soup. 

Broiled steak; asparagus; potatoes; 

spiced pears. 

Coffee charlotte. 

Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Hominy and cream. 

Shad roe (from Friday) and bacon; 

pop-overs; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Creamed asparagus on toast; po- 
tato puff; tea. 
Fresh pineapple and cookies. 

DINNER 

Cream of spinach soup. 

Lamb stew; hominj- croquettes 

(from breakfast) ; new beets. 

Deep rhubarb tart. 

Coffee. 



Thursday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal with cream. 
Eggs scrambled with tomato (from 
Wednesday soup); hominy muffins; 
coffee. 



LUNCHEON 

Cakes of minced beef (from Wednes- 
day); lattice potatoes; tea. 
Rhubarb and marshmallow jelly 
with cream. 

DINNER 

Cream of asparagus soup (from 

Wednesday night). 

Chops; pease; potatoes; spiced 

prunes. 

Home-made charlotte russe. 

Coffee. 



BREAKFAST 

California cherries. 

Poached eggs on toast rounds with 

cream sauce; muffins; coffee. 

DINNER 

Shoulder of lamb, mint sauce; new 

potatoes; spinach. 

Lettuce and pineapple salad. 

Strawberries smothered in whipped 

cream; sponge-cake. 

Coffee. 

SUPPER 

Cold sliced lamb with potato and 

olive salad; coffee; sandwiches. 

Pineapple and sponge-cake (from 

dinner). 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 

Broiled smelts with parsley butter; 

cream toast; coffee. 

Fresh coffee-cake. 



LUNCHEON 

souffle ; toasted English 

muffins; tea. 
California cherries. 



DINNER 

Planked shad with border of mashed 

potatoes; string-beans. 

Lettuce salad. 

Vanilla ice-cream and lady-fingers. 

Coffee. 



Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Broiled dried beef; creamed hashed 

potatoes; toast; coffee. 

Wheat cakes. 

LUNCHEON 

Lamb and green peppers, hashed; 

tea. 

Spinach (from Sunday) in salad. 

Sponge-cake. 

DINNER 

Vegetable soup (from lamb bones). 
Breaded veal cutlet; new cabbage, 

creamed; potatoes. 
Cottage pudding with preser\'ed 



Coffee! 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



71 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Oatmeal and steamed figs with cream. 
Breakfast bacon ; corn bread; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Veal (from Monday) and rice cro- 
quettes; Saratoga potatoes; tea. 
Cream-cheese balls on lettuce. 
Stewed rhubarb. 

DINNER 

Beef loaf with tomato sauce; string- 
beans; potatoes. 
Asparagus salad. 
Caramel custards. 
Cofiee. 



Wednesday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 
Boiled eggs; rice muffins; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Cold sliced beef loaf (from Tuesday) ; 
baked potatoes; pickles. 
Cocoa and drop-cakes. 

DINNER 

Chicken fried in batter; potatoes; 

canned corn fritters. 

Lettuce and hard-boiled egg salad. 

Pineapple in lemon jelly with cream. 

Coffee. 



Thursday 

BREAKFAST 

Codfish croquettes; corn 
coffee. 
Fresh coffee-cake. 



LUNCHEON 

Hashed chicken (from Wednesday) 

in cream sauce, in small dishes. 

Spinach salad with cream-cheese 

balls. 

Cookies. 



DINNER 

Chicken and rice soup (from chicken 

bones). 
Balls of Hamburg steak, brown 
sauce; creamed new carrots; po- 
tatoes. 
Lemon sherbet; cake. 
Coffee. 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal with cream. 

Creamed clams on toast; pop-overs; 

coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Boston brown bread and baked 

beans; tea. 

Lettuce and mayonnaise; wafers. 

Gingerbread. 

DINNER 

Cream of lettuce soup. 
Sliced halibut with egg sauce; 

creamed beets; potatoes. 

Cold pop-overs (from breakfast) 

filled with whipped cream and 

chopped nuts. 

Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 

Deviled kidneys; hashed brown 

potatoes; toasted brown bread 

(from Friday) ; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Baked fish pudding (from Friday); 

tea. 

Asparagus and mayonnaise; wafers. 

Cherries. 



Pea soup. 

pot-pie with dumplings; 

string-beans; spiced fruit. 

Chocolate jelly. 

Coffee. 



MID-SUMMER LUNCHEONS 

THE decorations of the dining-room and table 
for a summer luncheon should be suggestive 
of coolness. For this reason ferns are espe- 
cially appropriate, either alone or in combination 
with a flower. It is a pretty fashion to fill the fire- 
places and window boxes with great bunches of 
ferns, as well as the corners of the halls and dining- 
room. As to the table, if the day is very hot have a 
shallow pan of water in the centre, the largest possible, 
following the outline of the table, whether oblong, 
square, or round, and cover the surface with pond- 
lilies, with their own leaves all around the edge, quite 
concealing the pan. Do not crowd the flowers, for 
they will be spoiled if massed; barely cover the 



Ferns must not be used with lilies, but they may 
be the one decoration of the table; bunches of maid- 
enhair fern are beautiful all by themselves; or single 
flowers — sweet-peas or carnations — may be added, 
but not too many. Or, if one has a dining-room fur- 

72 



EASY ENTERTAINING 73 

nished in Delft colors or in Colonial yellow, blue 
bachelor's-buttons and grasses, arranged in a num- 
ber of tall clear glass vases, are lovely. The dishes 
in this case must be blue and white, or gold and white, 
or plain white china. 

Instead of the ever-present salted almonds, try 
using pignolas for the luncheon- table; have the 
bonbons white, or white and green, and do not over- 
crowd the small dishes. Space gives a suggestion 
of coolness, even here. 

Melons. 

Cream bouillon with hot wafers. 

Cold lobster with sauce tartare. 

Spanish chicken; little potatoes, fried whole. 

Pineapple salad with mayonnaise. 

Coupe orientale. Small cakes. Coffee. 

Unless pond-lilies are on the table, lay three maiden- 
hair ferns on each plate, curling them up bowl-shape, 
and lay half an iced cantaloupe within. Make the 
bouillon as usual, but do not season with lemon juice; 
use only salt, Cayenne and wine. Take half as much 
whipped cream as you have bouillon, and mix. Serve 
hot, with hot wafers. 

Remove the lobster from the shell in large pieces 
and serve on very cold plates with a spoonful of sauce 
tartare on each. Or dip each piece of lobster in 
mayonnaise into which you have put a tablespoonful 



74 EASY ENTERTAINING 

of dissolved gelatine, and coat them; serve without 
the tartare, but with a slice of lemon dipped in chopped 
parsley by the lobster. 

The Spanish chicken is a pleasant change from the 
ordinary way of preparing the familiar bird. For 
ten people stew two chickens and cut into even dice. 
Boil down the chicken stock till you have two cup- 
fuls; strain, thicken, and brown. Cook six tiny onions 
and put them in with a cup of cooked pease, the livers 
of the chickens, chopped, and three sweet red peppers, 
cut up. Put in the chicken and turn it over, without 
breaking the dice, till well heated. Pile on a hot 
platter in pyramid shape, and put triangles of toast 
all around the edge, with parsley between. Serve 
with this very small round potatoes, scraped and 
cooked whole by plunging in deep fat. 

For the salad have a small white heart of lettuce 
for each person and arrange with rather large bits 
of pineapple. Use either French dressing or mayon- 
naise with them. 

For the dessert, have a quart of raspberry ice and 
a quart of rich vanilla cream made without eggs, 
and a quart of small, sweet red raspberries. Put 
a spoonful of berries in each tall, shallow glass, and 
sprinkle with powdered sugar and a little sweet wine. 
Lay a spoonful of the ice and one of the cream on 
these, side by side, not one on top of the other, and 



k 



Prom " Harper's Bazar." 
Copyright, 1907, by Harper & Brothers. 

Sponge-cake Baskets for Berries, 



EASY ENTERTAINING 75 

put a few raspberries in a pile on top of all, with sugar 
and wine. Serve immediately. 

All through this luncheon pass lemonade colored 
with raspberry juice; have slender glasses at each 
plate and keep them half full of scraped ice, and use a 
tall glass pitcher for the lemonade. 

Another summer luncheon may have the table 
decorated with nasturtiums; not many of the ordi- 
nary orange ones, but the darker shades which are 
so rich and velvety. With these flowers use the pretty 
salad suggested below, which is decorated with nas- 
turtiums, and if you have guest-cards have the 
same flower painted on them. 

MENU 

Salpicon of fruits. 

Cream of com soup; hot wafers. 

Crabs St. Laurent. 

Chops with fresh mushrooms; cauliflower au gratin; potato 

croquettes. 

Egg and chicken salad with nasturtiums. 

Pistache parfait, or pistache blanc-mange. 

Coffee. 

A salpicon of fruits is quite a different thing, and 
a much better one, than the mixture of fruits simply 
cut up and sweetened which one usually sees. To 
prepare it, shred pineapple, banana, grape-fruit pulp 
or orange, and mix. Take a cup of sugar and boil 
with a tablespoonful of water till it threads; add a 



76 EASY ENTERTAINING 

large tablespoonful of lemon juice, and while still 
warm pour over the fruit and turn once. Stand away 
to get cold, and after an hour or more serve in glasses 
with two or three maraschino cherries and their 
juice. 

For the soup, simply prepare the usual cream of 
fresh corn, but put whipped cream on each cup in 
serving. Crab meat may now be had in tins, very 
nice and fresh, with the crab shells accompanying, so 
that inland hostesses may have crabs St. Laurent 
as well as those nearer the seashore. Take one 
teaspoonful of butter and one of flour; melt the but- 
ter, rub in the flour, add a half-cup of stock and as 
much cream; cook till smooth; season with salt, 
Cayenne, and a little nutmeg, and add the crab meat; 
then put in two tables poonfuls of Parmesan cheese, 
grated, and one tablespoonful of lemon juice. Cook 
all one minute, fill the shells, cover with crumbs, 
sprinkle with cheese and paprika, and brown in the 
oven. 

For the meat course, get fine large lamb chops, 
cut thick, and remove the bone; a good plan is to 
have two cut together, and after the bone is removed 
press between plates till they are of the right size. 
Make them into circles and fasten with small wooden 
toothpicks. Peel and broil large buttered mush- 
rooms and cover each chop with one, stem end down. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 77 

Put a dash of lemon juice and chopped parsley 
over all, and serve on a very hot platter. 

The cauliflower must be boiled, picked into bits, and 
laid in a buttered baking-dish. Cover with white 
sauce, then with salt, paprika, and grated Parmesan 
cheese, and another layer of cauliflower; the last 
layer must be cheese. Bake in a hot oven till brown. 
Small potato croquettes may also accompany this 
course. 

For the pretty salad make a cup of stiff mayon- 
naise first, and put in a small bowl in the centre of 
a round platter. Boil nine eggs hard and remove 
the yolks; mash these and add an equal quantity 
of potted chicken, such as may be bought in small 
tins, or cooked chicken chopped and mashed, with 
seasoning. Mix well, and put in enough mayon- 
naise to enable you to mould into small balls. Cut 
the whites of the eggs into rings. Around a finger- 
bowl fuU of cracked ice stand white lettuce hearts, 
with a flat row of nasturtium leaves all around the 
edge of the dish. On these leaves lay the rings 
of egg white, in overlapping circle, and pile up the 
egg and chicken balls among the lettuce. Sprinkle 
quickly with French dressing, and then lay on dark 
nasturtium flowers. The contrast of colors is lovely. 

The next course is pistache parfait — something 
quite new. Make the usual French vanilla ice-cream, 



78 EASY ENTERTAINING 

but color it green with vegetable color and flavor 
with pistache. Put this into tall champagne-glasses, 
and pour a teaspoonful of maraschino over it; then 
on top put a large spoonful of whipped cream. The 
peculiarity is the combination of flavors. 

If you wish a simple dessert which will yet be very 
pretty, make a blanc-mange as usual, and color green 
and flavor with pistache. Set in small moulds to 
harden, and turn out on a long platter. Decorate 
with strips of angeUca and candied cherries. 



THE COLD DINNER 

THE cold dinner is fashionable. Once it was 
synonymous with discomfort; now it stands for 
all that is most appetizing and delicious for a 
hot summer's meal. There is scarcely a meat which is 
not better cold than hot; fish is infinitely more tooth- 
some when thoroughly chilled, while salads and ices 
are only the fitting thing to complete the biU of fare. 
As to soup, this offers a difference of opinion, but the 
woman who doubts may dispense altogether with 
this dish and substitute something she approves with 
more enthusiasm; still, a cold soup of just the right 
consistency and flavor is something too good to de- 
cUne. 

If possible, serve the cold dinner on a veranda 
shaded from the street or lawn by climbing vines, or 
rows of potted plants set on the railing; but if the 
conditions of the house render these adjuncts impos- 
sible, then use the dining-room, but see that it is as 
cool as possible. If the day is extremely hot, put 
some wash-tubs with blocks of ice, or better, ice and 
salt, about the room, and close the doors after the 

79 



80 EASY ENTERTAINING 

table is ready. This will lower the temperature im- 
mediately. Of course all the food may be prepared 
in advance of the dinner hour, so that no heat from 
the kitchen will affect the dining-room as on an ordi- 
nary occasion — one of the many advantages of 
having a cold meal, by the way. 

As to decorations, use delicate green ferns, or if 
you feel that you must have flowers, choose small 
white ones to mingle with the green. Large pieces 
of ice piled irregularly on a platter covered with ab- 
sorbent cotton, with small growing ferns taken from 
the earth and shaken free of soil tucked in the crevices 
and about the edge of the platter, give a delightfully 
cool effect. The lights should be white candles with 
white shades. The china is better all white or white 
and gold rather than anything of the decorated va- 
riety. Use glass dishes for the bonbons — have these 
white also — and for the nuts. Do not put any olives 
on the table at all, but pass them. Lay the covers 
farther apart than usual, and do not have many knives 
and forks displayed, but bring them on as they are 
needed. All these trivial details help to give the 
impression of coolness to the table. 

The first menu suggested begins with a fruit soup, 
such as one sees in Europe, and one of the few which 
are really good. A course of fruit may be substituted 
for it if one prefers: 



EASY ENTERTAINING 81 

Cherry soup; brown-bread sandwiches. 
Brook trout with mayonnaise; cucumbers. 

Asparagus. 

Cold boned chicken; currant jelly; tomatoes. 

Cheese and pimento salad; wafers. 

Ice-cream in melons. 

Iced coffee. 

The recipe for the soup is this: stone and mash 
one pint of cherries, reserving a few whole, two or 
three, for each plate; add a pint of water, the juice 
and grated rind of one lemon, cinnamon and sugar 
to taste, and four tablespoonfuls of claret; simmer 
half an hour. This soup is also made with large CaU- 
fornia plums and is equally good, and one peeled 
plum, halved, is put in each plate. If one wishes 
soup, but something more conventional, substitute 
for this the bouillon given in another menu. All fish 
which is to be used cold must be gently boiled, never 
broiled nor fried, with the exception of soft-shell 
crabs. The brook trout are to be served whole, on a 
napkin, but they should be cut through in conve- 
nient pieces before they are passed; a bed of water- 
cress is best to use with these small fish; the mayon- 
naise is to be passed in a small bowl set in one that 
is larger, the space between filled with scraped 
ice. 

For the substantial course have two or more chick- 
ens boned, stuffed, and roasted, or if this seems too 



82 EASY ENTERTAINING 

difficult, simply roast them and cut from the bones. 
The salad is new and pretty; break up two square 
cream cheeses and mix with two dozen olives and six 
pimentos, both chopped rather fine, or, instead, with 
two dozen pimolas, which are olives stuffed with 
pimentos; press this into a pan and put on ice, 
and when you wish to use it cut in strips and 
serve on lettuce with French dressing. The contrast- 
ing colors of the green olives, the scarlet pimentos, 
and the white cheese give a most attractive effect. 

For the sweet, take small spicy nutmeg melons, 
cut in halves, and remove the seeds; fill each half 
with a rich vanilla ice-cream, and serve on individual 
plates with small cakes. The coffee at a cold dinner 
should be the one hot article on the menu, if the 
weather at all permits; if only that which is iced wLU 
do, then have it really cold, with a little finely pow- 
dered ice in each glass and a spoonful of whipped 
cream on top; have this passed on the veranda or 
lawn or in the drawing-room — not at the table. 

For another dinner omit the soup: 

Clams on the half-shell; brown bread and butter. 

Cold boiled salmon, sauce tartare; cucumbers. 

Chicken chartreuse. 

Tongue in aspic; tomatoes with French dressing. 

Pineapple salad; cheese wafers. 

Frozen watermelon. 

Bar-le-Duc; coffee. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 83 

Small steaks of salmon are the best to get for this 
fish course, unless, indeed, you can have a whole fish; 
the small cutlets are easy to manage on the platter, 
as they keep their shape well. 

The tongue is to be boiled, peeled, and wiped dry; 
then make a strong stock, either with meat and bones 
or else with beef extract, seasoned with lemon juice 
and a little onion, and set this with gelatine. Strain 
over the tongue in a deep pan and put on ice over- 
night; garnish with sliced lemon, and slice with a very 
sharp knife as it is passed, unless you have sUced it 
before it is packed in the pan, which is really the 
better way, though it is difficult to keep it in place 
while the jelly is soft; it must be put in just before 
it is ready to set. 

For the salad, pick up a pineapple in large bits, 
put on lettuce, and dress with a very stiff mayonnaise 
which has been thinned to the proper consistency 
with whipped cream. Prepare the frozen melon- by 
cutting large rounded spoonfuls from a ripe, sweet 
watermelon; remove the seeds, put in the freezer, 
cover with powdered sugar and sherry, and let it 
remain packed for at least five hours. The coffee 
at this dinner is to be hot, served with Bar-le-Duc 
preserves and thin crackers. Omit these if you decide 
on iced coffee. 

One more menu may be easily arranged, for there 



84 EASY ENTERTAINING 

are delicious cold dishes in plenty to choose from; 
indeed, a cold dinner is easier to plan than a hot one. 

Iced cantaloupe or clams. 

Jellied bouillon; brown bread and butter. 

Cold duck; currant jelly; cauliflower with French dressing. 

Tomato and lettuce salad. 

Fancy ices; small cakes. 

Coffee; Brie cheese and wafers. 

To make the bouillon proceed as for aspic jelly; 
that is, either make a strong stock which will jelly 
of itself when cold and carefully clarify and strain it, 
or else take beef extract, add plenty of seasoning, 
lemon juice, and a little wine, and after straining set 
this with gelatine; in either case do not have it too 
stiff; just to set it is all that is desirable. To serve 
it, break into small bits and put in bouillon-cups and 
have it very cold. Tiny sandwiches of thin Boston 
brown bread should accompany it. 

Duck and cauliflower are always an excellent com- 
bination, but do not have the vegetable seem like a 
salad; use only enough French dressing to flavor it 
and pass it with the same plates as for the duck. 
Another meat course which is deUcious and rather 
a novelty may be substituted for this one with a Uttle 
trouble: Take slices of lamb, dip in mint sauce, and 
drain well; make an aspic as before and pour an inch 
into a mould; then put in a layer of pease, then the 



EASY ENTERTAINING 85 

slices of lamb, then more pease, and fill up the mould 
with the jelly. The cauliflower will be nice with this 
also. If the duck is omitted, alter the salad course 
and have slices of chicken breast on lettuce with stiff 
mayonnaise, in place of the tomatoes. 

Other cold dishes which may be used according to 
taste are salad of cold duck, watercress, and mayon- 
naise; pond-lily salad, which is made by cutting the 
whites of hard-boiled eggs lengthwise and la3dng these 
slices in radiating petals from a centre of the egg-yolk 
mixed with mayonnaise dressing; nasturtium salad; 
and salad of cherries with lettuce and French dressing. 

A pretty idea is to serve the sauce tartare in half- 
lemons scooped out to make cups. These are passed 
on the same dish with the fish and make a very good 
garnish for the platter. 

A delightful cold relish to begin a summer dinner 
is a canape of caviare, tomato, and mayonnaise. 
The foundation is a slice of not too fresh bread cut 
out with a round cutter. On this is spread a generous 
layer of caviare, and this in turn is surmounted by a 
thin slice of tomato spread with stiff mayonnaise. 
The tomato, which can stand almost any amount 
of salt, deliciously balances the salty flavor of the 
caviare. 

For cold desserts there are numberless sherbets, 
ices, crushed fruit, and iced puddings. 



SUMMER DINNERS 

A DINNER -TABLE in summer may have a 
central decoration of snowballs. Arrange 
a large, loose mound of the smaller flowers 
in the middle of the table with an edge of their own 
leaves, and slightly veil the whole with a few sprays 
of asparagus fern. The candles may be white with 
soft white shades, each with a spray of artificial 
snowball and leaf attached, and the place-cards may 
carry out the same idea by having a little water-color 
flower painted on a plain card. The tall glass com- 
potes may hold white bonbons and little iced cakes. 
There is a beautiful white, opalescent glass which 
costs but little, and is most attractive for a white 
table in the warm weather. If one does not care for a 
snowball decoration, vases of this glass may be filled 
with white roses; the candle-shades maybe of white 
rose petals, with cards to match, and the opalescent 
finger-bowls may hold each a petal or two. 

Still another lovely decoration may be arranged 
by putting a large cut-glass vase on a round Shefl&eld 



EASY ENTERTAINING 87 

tray on feet, filling the vase with roses, pink or white, 
with four or six smaller bunches of roses about the 
table. The candles should match the color of the 
flowers, and the shades be made of silk rose petals. 
In hot weather one may fancy omitting the usual 
course of soup at dinner, having first, if the meal is 
sufficiently formal to warrant it, a canape, then a 
course of fruit, then the fish. 

Canape of anchovies and pimento. 

Strawberries. 

Planked lobster with cucumbers, sauce tartare. 

Peppers stuffed with asparagus. 

Broiled chops of spring lamb, with new pease and potatoes. 

Lettuce and tomato salad, with hot cheese fritters; wafers. 

Vanilla cream snowballs, with sauteme sauce; fancy cakes. 

Coffee. 

To prepare the anchovy canapes, have made some 
small circular pieces of toast and spread each one first 
with butter, then with anchovy paste. Sprinkle with 
lemon juice, and lay on each piece two strips of 
pimento, at right angles. Arrange all the rounds on a 
small, flat dish, and surround with lemon quarters 
and quarters of hard-boiled egg, alternating. 

The strawberries are to be served as usual; very 
large ones laid around the edge of a small plate on a 
paper doily, the green hulls toward the centre, where 
is sugar. These plates are to be laid on the place- 
plates. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



The lobster is to be a fine large one, strictly fresh, 
which must be killed, spHt open lengthwise, and fast- 
ened to a board especially made for planking fish; 
this board will be found at any house-furnishing 
shop. It may be tacked where that is necessary to 
keep it in place. Melted butter is to be put on it as 
it cooks, and when it is done it should be sprinkled 
with salt. This dish may be served either hot or 
cold, but it must always appear on the plank, though 
it may be cut in convenient pieces while retaining its 
shape. If the company is a large one three lobsters 
or more will be necessary. The blackened board may 
be sHghtly covered by a border of white lettuce hearts 
and egg quarters, or the cucumbers may edge it, with 
lettuce. As, for convenience, the board is usually 
laid on a platter, lettuce may be so put around as to 
half conceal it. The sauce is passed in a bowl. 

The entree is quite a new dish and a very nice one. 
Cut off the stem end from green peppers, remove the 
inside, and put them into a kettle of hot water and 
gently simmer them for five minutes; drain them 
carefully, turning the opening down; prepare a 
mixture made of one cup of grated bread crumbs, 
one tablespoonful of melted butter, half a tea- 
spoonful of salt, a teaspoonful of mushroom cat- 
sup, half a pint of cold boiled asparagus cut in 
small, even pieces, a tablespoonful of olive-oil, and a 



EASY ENTERTAINING 89 

teaspoonful of lemon juice. Mix thoroughly; fill 
the peppers; put them into a shallow baking-dish, 
and cook for half an hour in a moderate oven, basting 
frequently with brown stock or hot water mixed with 
a teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet and as much melted 
butter. Arrange aroimd a mould of hot boiled rice, 
and garnish with large pitted oUves, made hot in what 
is left of the stock. 

Mint jelly may be served with the chops and the 
vegetables. The jelly is made by bruising a bunch 
of mint and adding it to an ordinary lemon jelly, 
straining out the mint before setting it in the mould. 
A Uttle green coloring will be needed to make it look 
as it should. 

The salad may be thin sUces of tomatoes laid on 
lettuce with French dressing, and these deUcious little 
brown cheese balls may be passed with wafers: Grate 
dairy cheese until you have a cup and a half; mix 
with this a tablespoonful of bottled Parmesan cheese, 
a tablespoonful of flour, a quarter of a tablespoonful 
of salt, and a sprinkling of Cayenne. Fold into this 
^he stiff whites of three eggs, make it into small balls, 
|ind roll each one in fine bread crumbs. Fry quickly 
in a wire basket in deep fat, and serve very hot, on 
k folded napkin, or laid on the salad-plates, if they 
are prepared before sending to the table. Have nice 
thin crackers to eat with the salad. 



90 EASY ENTERTAINING 

For the ice-cream, scald a pint of thin cream with 
a cup of sugar, and when cold beat well, and add a 
pint of whipped cream. Freeze as hard as possible, 
and let it stand at least two hours to ripen, without 
the dasher. When needed, take two tablespoonfuls 
and mould the cream into balls as it is taken out, 
and roll each of these in grated cocoanut. These may 
be arranged on a platter with whipped cream, or may 
have a delicious sauterne sauce, hot or cold. To make 
this dissolve a cup of sugar with a tablespoonful of 
water, and let it boil for two minutes; cool, and add 
a pint of sauterne, mixing thoroughly, and pass with 
the snowballs. For a summer dinner perhaps this 
sauce is better well chilled rather than hot. Small 
cakes, iced in white, accompany the cream, and the 
coffee is served in the drawing-room. 

Another dinner suitable for summer may have a 
soup, which may be used heated or iced, as the 
weather indicates. 



Iced red currants. 

Jellied bouillon, with buttered strips of brown bread. 

Large smelts, broiled, sauce tartare. 

Cucumbers farcis. 

Large squab, stuflfed; fresh mushrooms on toast; new pease; 

small new potatoes. 

Tomatoes filled with sweetbreads and mayonnaise. 

Strawberry ice-cream in angels' food with fresh berries; cakes. 

CoflEee. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 91 

For the fruit course select fine large currants with 
small seeds; crush them with a silver fork, sweeten 
with sugar-and-water syrup, and put them into a small 
pail; bury in ice and salt for two hours, and then 
beat up well and serve in tall glasses. For the soup, 
make a strong bouillon the day before it is needed, 
and after straining thoroughly set it away; the next 
day, if it is not firm enough to break into bits, melt 
it and add a Uttle gelatine, with salt, Cayenne, and 
sherry to taste. Serve in large, flaring cups which 
have been chilled, and pass buttered strips of Boston 
brown bread with it. If it is desirable to have this a 
hot course, serve the bouillon with a thin slice of 
lemon in each plate, or omit the lemon and pour it 
over a cup of whipped cream just before serving. Ail 
hot soups at dinner are served in the usual soup- 
plates, but an iced soup in a large bouillon bowl or 
cup. 

For the fish get the largest-sized smelts and split 
them lengthwise; rub each with French dressing, 
and broil on a buttered gridiron so quickly that they 
will not be dry; put watercress and lemon quarters 
around them and serve them very hot. 

To prepare the entree, peel large cucumbers, spUt 
them, and scoop out the seeds. Chop very fine a 
cup of cold roast veal or chicken, mix with a cup of 
fine, soft white bread crumbs and half a cup of white 



92 EASY ENTERTAINING 

sauce; season very highly with salt and Cayenne, and 
stuff the cucumbers, filling each half evenly. Lay the 
two pieces together and wrap in a long strip of cheese- 
cloth and simmer g'3ntly, in water enough to cover 
them, for twenty minutes. Unwrap them and ar- 
range them on a flat dish, and put a spoonful of rich 
white sauce made with cream over each one. 

The butchers now call the pigeons meant for roast- 
ing " Jumbo squab," and it is well to ask for them 
by that name. Prepare a stuffing by browning a 
slice of onion in two tables poonfuls of butter, and 
after removing the onion, put in two cups of soft, 
white bread crumbs and brown, seasoning with salt 
and pepper. Roast the birds, with constant basting, 
and serve with fresh mushrooms, broiled, on toast, 
and new pease, fried potatoes, and currant jelly. 

The salad may utilize the fresh tomatoes, now at 
their best. A delicious combination is to mix dice 
of cooked sweetbreads with mayonnaise and fill 
scooped-out tomatoes, passing cream cheese and 
wafers with them. 



LITTLE DINNERS FOR THREE DOLLARS 

IN the early summer it is perfectly possible to have 
quite an elaborate little dimier party for six for 
the small sum of three dollars, and this includes 
not only the soup, fish, and meat, but also the 
Uttle accessories, the salted nuts, rolls, and after- 
dinner coffee. 

Flowers are so plenty in the early summer that for 
a few cents one can have a beautiful table. A large 
flat dish filled with sand, edged with green leaves 
and filled with yellow pansies, makes a charming 
centrepiece, and with soft yellow candle shades over 
the lights there is nothing more needed by way of 
decoration. As to menu, this is one quite in season: 

Strawberries in sherry, 15 cents; cream of tomato 
soup, 15 cents; fish cutlets and sliced cucumbers, 28 
cents; lamb, mint jelly, browned potatoes, pease 
(lamb and jelly, $1.20; vegetables, 25 cents), $1.45; 
lettuce and escarole with cheese, French dressing, 20 
cents; pineapple and banana ice-cream, 35 cents; 
coffee (also dinner rolls and almonds), 25 cents. — ■ 
Total, $2.83. 



94 EASY ENTERTAINING 

The first course of berries is prepared by getting 
one box or quart for about eight cents; hull them and 
lay them in a little sherry; sprinkle well with sugar, 
and put them on ice; at dinner time drain them and 
put them in glasses; stand a glass on a small plate 
for each person, and put this plate on the larger serv- 
ice plate at the cover. This first course may be 
on the table when the guests sit down; a small fork 
is to lie on the plate by the side of the glass, and a 
couple of strawberry leaves may be put under the 
foot of the glass, if they are obtainable. The sherry 
is the kind used for cooking, and a small half cup or 
quarter of a pint will be plenty; this will cost twenty- 
five cents a pint, or less. 

For the soup get a quart of milk and three good- 
sized tomatoes; cut the latter up and stew them with 
seasoning; add a pinch of soda, then the hot milk, and 
strain; thicken slightly, and strain again. In place 
of tomato, corn may be used, or fresh Lima beans, 
at the same price. 

For the fish course get a pound and a half of any 
cheap white fish, such as cod or haddock, paying not 
over twelve cents a pound for it; boil this till tender 
in highly seasoned water, drain it, and pick it up; 
add enough white sauce to make it soft; about half 
a cup to a pint of fish; season well, and let it get cold; 
then shape into cutlets, dip each into crumbs, yolk 



EASY ENTERTAINING 05 

of egg, and crumbs again, and let them dry well; 
fry two at a time in deep fat in a wire basket. Have 
ready some little white paper frills and wooden tooth- 
picks; fasten one frill on each bit of wood, and stick 
into the small end of the cutlet. SUce thin three 
cucumbers, for which you have paid ten cents, and 
put a row of these on one side of the dish. It is a good 
plan to dip them in French dressing and drain them 
first; otherwise pass a bowl of the dressing. 

For the meat course get from the butcher a small 
leg of old lamb; be sure and not get the very costly 
spring lamb; a five-pound leg will be more than 
enough, at twenty- two cents a pound; or get a fore 
quarter instead, which will be still cheaper. Roast 
this in a covered pan to keep it moist and tender, and 
baste it often; uncover only long enough to brown it 
at the last. With this have small new potatoes, 
scraped, and then fried whole in hot fat till they are 
crisp and brown; drain these on paper. Have pease, 
also, served dry. For the jelly make a small quan- 
tity of ordinary lemon jelly, omitting half the amount 
of sugar, and into it while warm put a bunch of 
crushed mint leaves; strain, and set into a small 
mould. K the color is not good, put in a little artificial 
green, or a few drops of spinach juice. The jelly will 
cost about ten cents and the vegetables together 
a possible twenty-five. 



96 EASY ENTERTAINING 

The salad is very simple, but good with this partic- 
ular dinner; take small lettuce leaves and mix them 
with some of escarole or other salad green; add just 
a few tiny strips of cooked beet, only enough to give 
a little color, and put French dressing over them; 
then last put on a spoonful of grated cheese. 

The ice-cream at the end is particularly good. 
Make a full pint of plain ice-cream first, and put it 
into the freezer; omit the flavoring. Stir till nearly 
set, and then put in a small cupful of minced fresh 
pineapple and one of banana pulp, and turn till set; 
when needed, dip this up into small glasses and pour 
a very little maraschino over each one. The milk 
and cream will cost seven cents, the fruit about eight- 
een, the flavoring and sugar a few cents more, 
leaving a little margin for ice and salt. Of course 
a very tiny pineapple and two bananas will be plenty 
to use. 

For the salted almonds which are to be served with 
this dinner, get a quarter of a pound of the shelled 
ones and salt them at home; have no butter, but get 
six dinner rolls for five cents, and lay one in each 
napkin; the coffee will not cost over ten cents, and 
there is still a trifling sum over when all is paid for, 
which may be used for olives, or flowers, or pepper- 
mints. 

For a second dinner at three dollars there is another 



EASY ENTERTAINING 97 

menu which is quite as good as the first one; and 
instead of using yellow pansies the hostess may have 
snowballs of a small size, lightly veiled in delicate 
green; or summer roses are lovely. 

Strawberries, 8 cents; cream of lettuce soup, lo 
cents; fish in cucumbers, 25 cents; roast of veal 
stuffed, puree of cauliflower, potatoes (veal, $1.15; 
vegetables, 20 cents), $1.35; asparagus salad, wafers, 
40 cents; rice impera trice, 25 cents; coffee (also 
included rolls and almonds), 25 cents. — Total, $2.68. 

Instead of serving the strawberries as before have 
them plain, hulls on, laid on small plates with a pile 
of sugar in the middle of a circle of the berries. As 
only a few are needed for each person, one box will 
be enough, at eight cents. 

For the soup take part of a green head of lettuce 
or any outer leaves of one and stew them in a very 
little water with a sUce of onion, salt, and pepper; 
when the whole is a pulp add a scant quart of milk, 
strain, thicken slightly, and strain again, and keep 
very hot. 

The fish course is a very nice one. Get a pound 
of any sort of white fish as before, for about twelve 
cents, and cook it; drain, pick it up, and cream it 
stifily. Get three large cucumbers and cut them in 
two lengthwise and remove the centres; drop these 
into hot water, and leave them till they are thor-. 



98 EASY ENTERTAINING 

oughly heated, and then wipe them dry inside and 
out; put the fish into them, and serve them on small 
plates, with a little watercress or parsley under each. 
The cucumber will flavor the fish just enough to make 
it very good; twenty-five cents will more than pay 
for this course. 

For the meat get a nice roast of veal, which is 
young and tender in summer. Stuff and roast it, 
and serve with it the same sort of potatoes as in the 
first dinner. For the second vegetable have boiled 
cauliflower put through a puree sieve, and well sea- 
soned. This is always nice with veal. 

As asparagus is too often expensive, a liberal al- 
lowance should be left for the salad, though in early 
summer it should not be over thirty cents a bunch 
at the most expensive market. Cook this, sprinkle 
with salt and a tiny bit of Cayenne, and lay it on ice 
tUl very cold; put it on a chilled dish and cover with 
French dressing. Have the plates used with this 
course kept on ice till they are needed, that the salad 
may be cold. 

For the dessert try this nice recipe: Wash well a 
small half cup of rice and boil it with a little salt until 
it is very soft; it may need half an hour; drain it 
and let it stand in the oven with the door open till it 
is rather dry. Then cool it, and to it add half a pint 
of cream whipped stiff and four tables poonfuls of 



EASY ENTERTAINING 99 

powdered sugar; flavor with cordial or sherry. Put it 
into a mould as soon as possible to prevent the cream 
from thinning, and bury the dish in ice and salt for 
four hours. Turn out on a cold platter and add a 
little whipped cream, or put some large strawberries 
around it. Serve on chilled plates. 

As the margin left from this dinner is so large, 
an extra amount of almonds can be purchased, or 
more money can be spent on flowers than before. 

Still a third dinner, which utilizes the crabs now 
in market and has a course of chicken, may be pre- 
pared for three dollars: 

Iced fruits in glasses, 15 cents; clear soup, 15 cents; 
soft-shell crabs, 50 cents; roast chicken, potatoes and 
pease (chicken, 90 cents; vegetables, 20 cents), 
$1.10; tomato and lettuce salad, 15 cents; souffle 
pudding, 15 cents (or ice cream in log houses) ; coffee, 
etc., 25 cents. — Total, $2.45. 

For the salad have sliced tomatoes on .lettuce. 
For dessert, here is a delicious souffle : Cream a heap- 
ing teaspoonful of butter with one of flour and two of 
powdered sugar; add half a cup of milk and simmer to 
a smooth paste; cool, add the yolks of three eggs well 
beaten with a teaspoonful of sherry; fold in the stiff 
whites of four eggs beaten with a pinch of salt. 
Bake in a buttered dish in a pan of water for twenty- 
five minutes; for sauce, cream half a cup of butter 



100 EASY ENTERTAINING 

and half a cup of sugar; melt over hot water and thm 
with sherry and a Uttle boiling water. This should 
be served as soon as it comes out of the oven or it 
will be heavy. 



A BRIDE'S DINNER 

THE dinner party which is often given by a 
bride just before her wedding-day may con- 
fine the number of its guests to the bride- 
maids alone, if there are six or more, or it may extend 
its ntunber to include the bridegroom, the best man, 
and the ushers. In the first case the dinner is a dis- 
tinctly light meal, especially in its fish and meat 
courses, but in the latter it must be a much more 
elaborate and formal affair. 

Roses have been used so long for anything con- 
nected with weddings that some other flower will 
appear as a relief on the table, especially as in all 
probability roses will figure on the wedding-day itself. 
In June we have one of the loveliest and most effect- 
ively decorative flowers of all the year, which will 
make a beautiful and novel table ornament, — the 
fleur-de-lis. Get those which come in delicate shades 
of yellow and lavender; use the two colors and have 
long stems. They look well arranged in a large mound 
in the centre of the table, standing in a bed of moss 

101 



102 EASY ENTERTAINING 

on a concealed platter, with an edge of their own 
leaves, or they are equally effective when arranged in 
tall, slender vases, one in the centre of the table and 
the others scattered about. Use candles with them 
which carry out the two colors, yellow ones w^ith laven- 
der shades, preferably. The dinner cards may be elab- 
orate ones, with sketches of the same flower in water- 
colors, or they may be the ordinary conventional 
fleur-de-Us cut from colored cardboard, yellow or 
lavender, with an edge painted in a deeper tint. 
The bonbons may also be in the same colors, and the 
china should be white or white and gold. 

Nothing on the table so far suggests that it is a 
wedding dinner, so there may be souvenirs of pretty 
satin boxes of heart shape, painted with the date of 
the dinner above and that of the wedding below. 
White or lavender boxes with a deeper tint in the 
lettering are best. The ices may be heart-shaped 
also, and of one of the two colors used on the 
table. 

If fleurs-de-lis are not to be had at the florist's, 
and the bride has not access to a country garden, 
the decorations may be arranged in another fashion 
that is equally pretty for a bridemaids' dinner. Take 
small baskets — those which have a small base and 
flare quickly, with very slender handles — and fill 
them with moss, fastening it well. Fill with long- 




From " Harper's Bazar." 
Copyright, 1905, by Harper & Brothers. 

Miniature Trees for Dinner Favors. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 103 

stemmed pink carnations, or roses, and plenty of 
asparagus fern, so as to conceal completely the out- 
line of the basket. Tie long pink ribbons to each 
handle, and then pile the baskets in the centre of the 
table, laying four down first, bases in, and arranging 
the rest on top so as to give the effect of a large, low 
mound of flowers and ferns. The ribbons should be 
so turned toward the guests that at the close of the 
meal each can lift and remove her basket from the 
pile and carry it away as a souvenir. If this plan is 
followed when the dinner is given to the entire bridal 
party, each bridemaid may give a flower from her 
basket to the man who takes her to dinner, as of 
course the men should have nothing so inappropri- 
ate as baskets. Rose-color candles and shades are 
to be used with these flowers, and candied rose leaves 
should be in the Uttle silver dishes. 

This first menu is intended for a dinner to bride- 
maids alone, so it is a simpler affair than the ones 
which follow: 

MENU 

Clam cocktail in small tomatoes. 

Almond soup. 

Soft-shell crabs; dressed cucumbers. 

Broiled squab; French pease; potato souffle. 

Pear salad. 

Heart-shaped ices; cakes. 

Cofiee: bonbons. 



104 EASY ENTERTAINING 

For the first course take small round tomatoes and 
scoop out the pulp; fill with this cocktail mixture 
which, Uke the tomatoes themselves, has been kept 
on ice for an hour: one tablespoonful of horseradish, 
one of vinegar, one of Worcestershire sauce, one of 
tomato catsup, two of lemon juice, one-half teaspoon- 
ful of Tabasco sauce, and as much salt; mix well with 
a pint of small clams, and in serving put five of 
these, with enough juice to cover them, into each 
tomato. 

The soup is a rich but delicate puree, made by 
cooking a cupful of chopped almonds with a quart 
of thin cream, thickening a very little, straining, and 
then pouring over a cupful of thick whipped cream, 
and serving while foamy. Croutons are good with 
this course, or hot wafers. 

In dressing the cucumbers try making a mayonnaise 
with whipped cream instead of oil, and use a good deal 
of lemon juice at the last; it makes a pleasant change 
from the usual French dressing. The salad is odd, 
and extremely dainty. Take a can of pears which 
have been put up whole, stems on, and not too sweet, 
and drain off all the juice. Lay them in a deep dish 
and pour French dressing over them, turning them 
in it occasionally; let this dish stand on ice two hours 
before dinner. Break up with a fork two Philadelphia 
cream cheeses and turn a part of the dressing over 



EASY ENTERTAINING 105 

them as you pour it off the pears, after arranging 
the cheese on a round platter. Then stand the pears 
on this, stems up, and serve with crackers. 

The heart-shaped ices may not be easy for all host- 
esses to find, but a simple dessert may replace them 
which is called chartreuse of strawberries. To pre- 
pare it select the very largest berries obtainable and 
roll them in stiff cream until each one is masked; 
then fill a border mould with a white ice-cream and 
turn it out on a circular dish, and fill the centre 
with a pile of the fruit. Small cakes accompany this 
course. 

The first course at a formal dinner is usually, though 
not always, canapes of caviare, anchovies, or sardines; 
they are easy to prepare and most appetizing, and 
it is rather a pity to omit them. Take small rounds 
of bread without crust, cut some in crescent shape 
with a biscuit -cutter, and toast them or saute lightly 
in butter, and spread each with caviare; serve these 
with pieces of lemon, one of each, on a small plate. 
Or take the rounds of toast and lay strips of anchovy 
across at right angles, putting grated egg in between, 
the white in one section and the yolk in the next one. 
Sardine paste may be used on crescents in place of 
caviare, or rounds may be arranged with the paste 
and egg and chopped olives. The complete menu 
should be: 



106 EASY ENTERTAINING 

Canape's. 

Clams on the half-shell. 

Clear soup. 

Baked fish with shrimps; dressed cucumbers. 

Crown roast of lamb, mint sauce; pease; new beans. 

Ginger sherbet. 

Breast of chicken; dressed lettuce. 

Fancy ices; cakes. 

Coffee. 

The fish may be any kind that is in season — white- 
fish, shad, or trout; the shr mps are the large ones, 
fastened to the back of the fish with Uttle silver 
skewers, more by way of decoration than anything 
else, though they are nice with the fish. A brown 
gravy, highly seasoned, should be served with this. 
The roast of lamb may be filled with riced potatoes, 
or with force-meat; if the lamb is small, the latter is 
better, and in that case the potatoes may be passed 
in a separate dish. The sherbet is a lemon ice flavored 
with the syrup from a pot of preserved ginger, as 
much as is required, and bits of the ginger are stirred 
in when the ice is half frozen. 

One more menu may be suggested, beginning with 
fruit instead of clams, and omitting the canapes: 

Strawberries. 

Cream of chicken soup; hot wafers. 

Soft-sheU crabs. 

Broiled spring chickens; new vegetables. 

Tomato salad; cheese straws. 

French ice-cream, maple sauce; cakes. 

Coffee. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 107 

The strawberries are to be served with hulls and 
stems on. A finger bowl should be at each cover. 

Unless the crabs are sure to be perfectly fresh, 
as is not always possible inland, it is better to sub- 
stitute for them a course of any white fish made into 
timbales with a cream sauce. The cream is a rich 
French vanilla, sUced and passed with a sauce made 
by breaking up English walnuts in hot maple syrup. 



VERANDA LUNCHEONS 

HAPPY is the woman who possesses a veranda! 
She has at once an ideal living-room, adorned, 
doubtless, with gay chintz pillows, window- 
boxes, and decorative awnings, and a dining-room 
where she may entertain with a certain atmosphere 
of novelty which even the most attractive dining- 
room in-doors must lack. 

To be sure, there is the objection that the kitchen 
is at a distance, and extra trouble must be taken to 
have the food served hot; but that is a diflSiculty 
easily overcome. A summer luncheon should consist 
largely of fruit and cold dishes, and the few hot ones 
should be brought in under covers and passed instead 
of being served on separate plates. 

The flowers for a June day should certainly be 
roses. It is better to mass several shades, or to have 
two contrasting colors, than to have all alike. The 
tiny rose called the Rambler gives a beautiful effect 
if its two varieties of red and white are mixed and its 
long vinelike spravs are allowed to stray over the 

108 



I 



EASY ENTERTAINING 109 

table. Large pink roses are also lovely mixed with 
dark red ones in tall glasses scattered over the table. 

MENU 

Whole pineapple, filled with fruit. 

Cream of lettuce soup. 

Pan fish, with tomato and oUve sauce. 

Broiled spring chicken; pease in cases; creamed potatoes. 

California-cherry salad; olives; cheese-straws. 

Fresh strawberry tartlettes. 

Iced-tea pimch; bonbons. 

Pineapples are at their best in June, and are es- 
pecially delicious served as a first course. The bushy 
end is cut from the fruit, the inside removed, and the 
core rejected. The rest is picked up in rather small 
bits, mixed with bits of orange and banana, sugar, and 
a little sherry, and returned to the shell, and the 
whole put on ice for several hours. Just before serv- 
ing, a spoonful of powdered ice is put on top. The 
pineapple is passed with the top lying on the dish 
by its side, and each guest helps herself with a long- 
handled spoon. 

The soup is simply made by cooking shredded 
lettuce in rich milk until it has a pretty green color, 
then seasoning, thickening, and pouring over whipped 
cream, which makes it foamy. For the next course, 
small fish are selected and fried, and then covered 
with a thick sauce made by cooking tomato, stoned 
olives and seasoning to a pulp, but not straining them. 



110 EASY ENTERTAINING 

With the broiled spring chicken, which is the best 
possible meat for a summer luncheon, have fresh 
pease, in little cups made either of batter or of puff 
paste, and small new potatoes with a rich cream 
over them. 

The summer salad is most delicious made of fruit. 
Large dark California cherries are selected, stoned, 
and laid in French dressing for half an hour. They 
are then laid on lettuce which has been sprinkled 
with the same dressing, and finely chopped parsley 
is scattered over the whole. 

Strawberry tartlets are very good, and make a 
pleasant change from the usual shortcake. Little 
shells are made by pressing into small patty-pans a 
thin layer of boiled rice with which an egg and salt 
are mixed when cooked. These layers should be 
baked until a crisp brown. The shells thus formed 
are filled with large strawberries, the top is covered 
with a stiff meringue, and the whole is put into a quick 
oven for a moment and afterward cooled. It should 
be served cold. 

The iced- tea punch is merely tea made by pouring 
boiling lemonade over dry tea leaves and letting it 
stand, when it should be strained and iced. Orange 
juice and banana added to the lemonade improve 
its flavor. 



PICNIC LUNCHEONS. NO. 1 

TO enjoy thoroughly a summer one should un- 
derstand the picnic. Too many who might 
know all about it never really find out its 
delights. They sit on their porches, or drive, or canoe, 
and once between June and October with strenuous 
efforts they have a picnic, a long day in the woods, 
with a solid meal of bread and butter, cold meat, 
crumbly cake, and warm lemonade, and they remem- 
ber the occasion as a duty performed; necessary, but 
not altogether pleasant. 

Now a picnic should be a usual thing with those 
who are in the country, or who may reach it with little 
effort. The sunset is never so beautiful as from the 
hill-top to which one has climbed, the canoeing trip 
never so charming as when the boat is drawn up on 
the shore and the camp-fire is lit, and to really enjoy 
these it is necessary to be leisurely, to know that one 
has not to hurry home, but that the next meal is at 
hand. And how good even plain bread and butter 

tastes eaten out-of-doors only the habitual picnicker 
111 



112 EASY ENTERTAINING 

knows; the one who, knowing it, does not stop with 
it, but goes on to better things. 

There is an expensive but truly desirable article 
to be had at house-furnishing shops which the picnic- 
lover should own, — the hamper fitted with plates, 
knives, forks, and spoons, cups and glasses, all fast- 
ened in so tightly that they cannot slip, and so com- 
pactly that there is room for the luncheon as well. 
Once bought, these hampers last forever, for the 
plates and cups are of white enamel, and the first 
cost is only an investment. Half the trouble of a 
picnic lies in packing the breakables so that they 
shall not rattle and chip, and the food which is put 
in among the plates and cups always emerges much 
the worse for its experience. However, the woman 
who cannot buy one of these ready-made affairs may 
take a Japanese-straw telescope bag and have the 
harness-maker fit it with straps, and not be so very 
far behind her sister with the hamper. 

In preparing the luncheon, lay out first what will 
be needed to spread the informal table. Count out 
plates — wooden ones, unless you have the enamel; 
stout tumblers; cups without handles, to avoid 
breaking; knives, forks, and spoons of no especial 
value; paper napkins; a small table-cloth; and 
shakers for the salt and pepper. Take the cold coffee 
and lemonade in glass fruit-jars with tight tops, 



EASY ENTERTAINING 113 

and get earthenware jars for the salad, with heavy 
oiled paper to tie over them. Have pasteboard boxes 
for sandwiches, and others for cold meat and cake; 
put only one sort of food in each receptacle. Be sure 
and take a good-sized piece of ice in a covered tin 
pail if you are to have a noon meal; if the picnic is 
toward evening, then instead of any cold drink have 
hot tea, by all means. Take a kettle and boil it 
over a fire, for this is half the pleasure of the occasion; 
if you are going to some place where you are not sure 
of wood, take a small bottle of alcohol and still have 
the tea; a heavy earthenware teapot is a wise thing 
rather than something frail. Do not forget the loaf 
sugar, a bottle of cream, and some lemons; put these 
last, with the dry tea, in a box by themselves. 

Begin preparing the luncheon by making the salad, 
as this can stand better than anything else. A fish 
salad is a good choice for a picnic, and shrimps make 
an excellent one. Lay them in ice-water for an hour, 
then remove the small black string from each one 
and dry; take hard-boiled eggs, half the quantity 
of the shrimps, and cut in rather large pieces; make a 
stiff mayonnaise without mustard, and mix all to- 
gether. Salmon, freed from skin and bones and 
drained, may be used in the place of the shrimps. Lob- 
ster is also to be prepared with the eggs and mayon- 
naise in exactly the same way, but a little dry mus- 



114 EASY ENTERTAINING 

tard should be added. Chicken salad is always sure 
to be appreciated; make it, if you prefer, with the 
chicken which comes in tins, adding the meat last 
to the eggs and dressing, as there is danger of its 
becoming mussy. Do not use celery in summer; 
it is too green to be good. If you wish a salad made 
without fish or fowl, take the hard-boiled eggs and 
mix with cut-up olives and mayonnaise. Or take 
yellow wax-beans cooked whole, well dried and salted, 
and add a spoonful of mayonnaise from a salad-jar 
on each plate. As to cold meat, try pressed chicken 
in a loaf. Make it by simmering a fowl till the meat 
drops from the bones; arrange this in a mould with 
seasoning, cook the broth down till it is just enough 
to fill the mould, and pour over it; this will set firm 
and may be sliced at the picnic table. Veal loaf is 
also excellent; and there is fried chicken which has 
been jointed and skinned, also cold tongue, cold 
lamb, and ham. Slice these last very thin and take 
off the fat before packing them in their boxes. If the 
day is cool and you fancy one hot dish, and are not to 
have chicken in any other form, make a dish of 
creamed chicken at home, pack it in a jar and take 
it with you, with an earthen casserole which no amount 
of heat or flame of the picnic fire will injure. 

Deviled eggs go well with cold meat when they 
have not been used in salad; plain hard-boiled eggs 



EASY ENTERTAINING 115 

are very indifferent eating, and these will repay the 
little trouble it takes to prepare them. Cut them in 
two, remove the yolk and mash it with salt, pepper, 
and a Uttle dry mustard; wet with a very little vine- 
gar, and replace, pressing the two halves together; 
roU each egg separately in paraffine paper. 

If there were no olives in your salad, take a bottle 
of these, but pour off the brine and rinse them, put- 
ting them dry in the bottle, and corking again. Little 
cucumber pickles are also nice to take, but they must 
be wiped dry one by one and carried in a box by them- 
selves, or they will scent the whole luncheon until 
everything tastes of vinegar and nothing else, — 
enough to spoU the finest and most carefully prepared 
meal. Pimolas, Uttle mangoes, chowchow, and all the 
different relishes taste better than usual in the open 
air, but one or two kinds are enough to take. Never 
be induced to take jelly in any form, for it is simply 
messy on a picnic plate. 

The sandwiches for a picnic should be made with 
something not too dry. Lettuce spread with French 
dressing or mayonnaise will come out perfectly moist 
and fresh. Home-made potted meat is good to use, 
unless cold meat is taken. Chopped hard-boiled 
eggs wet with mayonnaise make a delicious filling, 
but should not be taken if salad is the main dish of the 
meal. Boned sardines wet with lemon juice, finely 



116 EASY ENTERTAINING 

chopped cucumbers with French dressing, thin bread 
and butter, brown or white, spread with caviare, cream 
cheese mixed with whipped cream, chopped watercress, 
and simple bread and butter spread with mayonnaise 
or tartar sauce are all delightfully appetizing. The 
best plan is to have at least two kinds of sandwiches, 
some with fish or meat, and others with something green 
or piquant. Sweet sandwiches always seem out of 
place at a picnic, but if you wish a few, make them with 
orange marmalade or raspberry jam, using only a little 
for fear the bread may become wet with the juice. 

As to cake, never, never take layer cake to a picnic. 
Who does not recall the sticky mass of chocolate 
which emerges from even the best of packing, or the 
crimiby, sliding layers of cocoanut sprinkling every 
one with bits of stickiness? Only cakes which are 
firm are fit to be taken on such expeditions. Bake 
some small round ones of a sponge mixture, or try 
a loaf of fruit cake baked in a bread-tin and carried 
imcut. Or make a soft gingerbread, and just before 
you put it in the oven cover the top with blanched 
almonds split in halves; these will sink in half-way, 
but not to the bottom, and the few which remain 
on top will only add to the appearance of the loaf; 
the combination is really novel and good. Then there 
are crisp, fresh sugar cookies and gingersnaps, and 
besides these here is something new and most deli- 



EASY ENTERTAINING 117 

cious, a sort of sublimated nut wafer: Mix five level 
tablespoonfuls of sifted flour with a pinch of baking- 
powder and a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, and 
sift again; add half a pound of light brown sugar, a 
cup of English walnut meats broken into bits, but 
not chopped, and two eggs beaten together. Spread 
thin over well-buttered tins and bake in a moderate 
oven till pale brown; when perfectly cold cut in strips, 
and then remove these from the pans. 

A freezer of ice-cream is always a refreshing last 
course at a picnic, incongruous as it really is with 
that informal meal. Peach surprise is good. Peel, 
cut up, and mash the peaches to a pulp, and sweeten 
them well. Then to a quart of these take the whites 
of five eggs and turn them in without beating. Freeze 
solid, remove the dasher, pack the fruit down smoothly 
and cover the freezer with ice and salt, and last with 
a heavy blanket, so that there is no danger of the 
ice melting in transportation. A good cream is made 
by melting a large cup of sugar to a S3rrup, without 
water, and then adding half a cup of boiling water, 
to prevent the caramel from solidifying or burning; 
add to this, when it cools, a quart of thin cream, 
and freeze as it is. Or, add the yolks of three eggs, 
well beaten, and cook to the scalding-point, flavoring 
it with a tiny bit of vanilla bean. Strain this carefully 
before you freeze it. 



118 EASY ENTERTAINING 

Ice-cream can be carried more easily and served 
to better advantage if, after it is solidly frozen, it is 
taken from the freezer and packed in an ordinary 
tin mould with a cover, such as may be had at any 
tinsmith's. 

Frapped fruits may well take the place of ice- 
cream at a picnic, and with less trouble in prepara- 
tion. To make a freezerful, pack it as usual with ice 
and salt, but do not put in the dasher. Cut up a few 
oranges, some white grapes, a banana or two, and 
shred a pineapple; sweeten and put in two or more 
tablespoonfuls of sherry, and close the freezer; when 
you open it stir well before serving. Frozen water- 
melon is one of the most delicious of the chilled fruits, 
and in the late summer it is at its best. Choose a very 
large and well-ripened melon and take out the pulp 
in large, rounded spoonfuls. Put these in the freezer, 
and to every layer of the fruit add a half cup of pow- 
dered sugar wet with sherry. When the freezer is 
full, close it, and pack well with ice; this must stand 
at least five hours before it is ready to use, but it 
well repays the time it takes. 

A pretty dish of stuffed dates makes a pleasant 
close to a picnic meal. Wash and wipe them, and 
open each one at the side; put in half an English 
walnut and press the date together. Roll separately 
in granulated sugar. 



PICNIC LUNCHEONS. NO. 2 

OUT-OF-DOOR meals, every one admits, 
would be altogether charming if only one 
could have hot dishes served with cold. The 
ingenious woman may take a chafing-dish along when 
she goes a-picnicking, and, finding a quiet spot, 
set it up surrounded with a home-made five-sided 
screen of heavy pasteboard, and stir up delectable 
dishes in comfort. 

With the chafiing-dish take a firmly woven market- 
basket, lined with asbestos, and then with zinc. 
The cover, in two parts, also lined, fits tightly, with a 
strap to keep it in place. In one comer of the basket 
is a zinc compartment for ice, milk, or butter; this 
slips in and out, and so is kept clean without .trouble. 
Such a basket can be bought for five dollars, or less 
for a small size, or a substitute could be made without 
the asbestos lining by some clever tinsmith. With it 
all food keeps fresh indefinitely, since it is a portable 
refrigerator. 

One other convenience is a coffee-machine. This 
can be taken apart and put into small space for con- 

119 



120 EASY ENTERTAINING 

veyance, and when needed the parts shp into place, 
the alcohol is put into the lamp, a screen surrounds 
the whole, and delicious coffee is ready when the table 
is spread. 

A regular set of dishes for picnics is most useful. 
The white-enamelled plates and platters which can- 
not break, a set of cups, some heavy tumblers, plated 
knives and forks, and some large and small spoons 
can be kept together, ready for use at a moment's 
notice. Besides these things it is well to accumulate 
a store of emptied stone marmalade jars holding half 
a pint each, or a set of emptied tin baking-powder 
cans, each one labelled. Smaller jars, such as beef 
extract comes in, are useful also. Stores of coffee, 
tea, salt, pickles, olives, butter, seasonings, and the 
like can be put in quickly and the covers fitted on. 
Glass jars with strongly fastened covers are also a 
wise investment, as the dishes made ready for the 
chafing-dish are perfectly carried in them. A quan- 
tity of paper napkins and a tea-cloth, with a supply 
of parafline paper, will complete the outfit. 

It is a good plan to prepare a number of possible 
menus suitable for picnic meals, and have them where 
they can be found at once, since it is always difficult 
to plan quickly in an emergency. There may be a 
variety of dishes mentioned in each, so that one or 
more may be rejected if they cannot be readily man- 



EASY ENTERTAINING 121 

aged. These are especially prepared for using a 
chafing-dish for one course : 

Hot creamed eggs and cheese; lettuce sandwiches; 
oUves; coffee; little tea cakes; orange marma- 
lade. 

Veal loaf; hot scrambled eggs with tomato; cream- 
cheese sandwiches ; pickles; fresh gingerbr^d ; coffee. 

Deviled sardines with bacon; Swiss-cheese sand- 
wiches; pimentoes; spice cake; coffee. 

Lobster, creamed or Newburg; watercress sand- 
wiches; stuffed eggs; oUves; thin crackers and 
cheese. 

Cold sliced tongue; creamed canned chicken; cu- 
cumber sandwiches; coffee and lady fingers. 

Creamed hard-boiled eggs; chicken salad; lettuce 
sandwiches; olives; cakes and coffee. 

Eggs scrambled with chopped green peppers; 
shrimp salad; olive sandwiches; sponge-cake and 
coffee. 

Eggs Creamed with Cheese. — Prepare at home a 
cup of white sauce by melting a tablespoonful of 
butter, and adding, when it bubbles, two level table- 
spoonfuls of flour; when smooth, add a cup of rich 
milk and stir till creamy; season with salt and Cay- 
enne. Then add the whites of six hard-boiled eggs 
chopped evenly, and when cool put into a can. Mix 
the yolks until smooth with a tablespoonful of olive 



122 EASY ENTERTAINING 

oil, a teaspoonful of dry mustard, salt, and Cayenne, 
and put into a small covered jar. When the chafing- 
dish is ready, without the water-pan, put in a table- 
spoonful of butter, and in it brown six slices of bread, 
or heat toast made at home. Arrange this on the 
enamelled platter, and keep it hot by standing it be- 
neath the chafing-dish while you heat the eggs and 
white sauce. Cover the toast with grated or bottled 
Parmesan cheese and put the eggs over, and last 
the yolks, which need not be hot, though they may be 
put into the dish for an instant. 

Deviled Sardines with Bacon. — Drain a box of 
large sardines and put them into an empty wafer-tin. 
Take salt, dry mustard, and Cayenne, or mix them 
in the proportion of a teaspoonful of mustard to a 
saltspoon of salt and half of one of Cayenne, and put 
into one little jar. Have ready also half a pound of 
very thinly sliced bacon. When the chafing-dish is 
ready and very hot put in the bacon and crisp, and 
put it on the platter while you heat the sardines in the 
fat and cover them with the seasoning. Have ready 
some strips of toast made at home, and quickly turn 
one into the fat; lay this one on the platter, add a 
sardine, and prepare a second, and so on. Surround 
the fish with the bacon. 

Eggs with Tomato. — Cut up four tomatoes and 
stew with a teaspoonful of onion, salt, and pepper. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 123 

When cool put into a covered jar. Scramble six eggs 
in the chafing-dish, and when half set add the to- 
mato; season, and serve from the dish. 

Creamed Chicken. — Make at home a cup or more 
of rich white sauce, well seasoned, and when cold 
put it into a jar. When ready for luncheon, open a 
can of chicken, cut it into even pieces, and heat thor- 
oughly in the sauce. To make this into chicken New- 
burg, make the sauce by heating a cup of cream with 
the yolks of three eggs, seasoning it, and putting in a 
tablespoonful of sherry. 

Cold turkey, or roast chicken, or lobster, canned 
or fresh, or crab meat may be used in exactly the 
same way. 

Chicken Salad. — Cut cold chicken into even pieces 
as large as the end of your finger; add half as much 
celery, if you can get it crisp and white; if not, omit 
it altogether. Boil hard four eggs and cut these up, 
with a cup of stoned olives. Make a cup of thick 
mayonnaise, and put this and the salad into separate 
jars. Pour over the chicken three tables poonfuls of 
olive oil mixed with a small spoonful of vinegar, salt, 
and Cayenne. When ready to use mix with the may- 
onnaise and serve at once. 

Shrimp Salad. — Clean the shrimps carefully by 
opening them down the back and removing the black 
string; then put into ice-water for an hour, wipe dry, 



124 EASY ENTERTAINING 

and put into the can. Make the mayonnaise as before 
and mix when needed. 

Meat sandwiches should have the filling prepared, 
if possible, the day before. The chicken, tongue, veal, 
or even mutton or beef, is to be put twice through the 
meat-chopper, mixed with enough melted butter to 
make it rather soft, then seasoned with salt, Cayenne, 
and a little dry mustard and pressed into a deep pan. 
The next day it is very thinly sliced and put between 
buttered slices of bread. Other sandwiches may be 
made of any fresh vegetable used in salad — lettuce, 
escarole, celery, watercress, or sliced cucumber — 
all slightly sprinkled with French dressing. Very 
thin sUces of tomato, drained of all seeds and juice, 
may be used with salt and lemon juice. Other sand- 
wiches may be made by mixing cream cheese with a 
little salt and sweet cream to form a paste, and adding 
chopped green peppers, or pimentoes, or nuts, or 
olives, or a mixture of any two of these. Sweet sand- 
wiches may have chopped raisins and nuts; or dates 
and nuts; or figs wet with a very little cream after 
they are chopped; or prunes softened in the same way 
and mixed with nuts. Orange marmalade makes a 
nice sandwich, and so does red-raspberry jam. 

If cold coffee is preferred to hot, this may be pre- 
pared at home with cream and sugar, and ice may be 
taken to serve with it if the day is very warm. Lemon 



EASY ENTERTAINING 126 

juice and sugar may be taken in a bottle, and water 
and ice put in at the last moment. Ginger-ale can 
go in bottles and be mixed with lemonade or served 
alone. Tea can easily be prepared by taking an iron 
teakettle, and boiling the water over a gypsy fire, 
with a crane made of three stout green branches. 

A delicious gingerbread which is most appetizing 
for a picnic may be made on the morning of the day 
it is needed by this simple rule: 

A cup of molasses, a tablespoonful of butter, a 
tablespoonful of boiling water, two and a half cups 
of flour, a teaspoonful each of ginger, cloves, cinna- 
mon, and soda, and half a saltspoon of salt. Put the 
melted butter into a bowl, and add molasses and 
spices; dissolve the soda in a little boiling water, and 
put it in next and then beat in the flour. Bake in a 
shallow tin lined with buttered paper for half an hour, 
or, if the oven is not very hot, a little longer. 



SUMMER MENUS FOR FOUR WEEKS 



Sunday 

BREAKFAST 

Strawberries. 

Eggs poached in cream; pop-overs; 

coffee. 

DINNER 

Leg of young lamb; pease; new 

potatoes. 

String-bean salad with cream-cheese 

balls. 

Pineapple sherbet; cake. 

Coffee. 



LUNCHEON 

Fried perch with sauce tartare; 

rolls; tea. 

Individual strawberry short-cakes. 

DINNER 

Clear soup (from lamb bones'). 
Veal cutlet, breaded; scalloped po- 
tatoes; fried eggplant. 
Cold rice pudding with orange 
marmalade. 
Coffee. 



Creamed crab meat in small dishes; 

hot biscuit; coffee. 

Asparagus and mayonnaise. 

Strawberries and cake. 



Monday 

BREAKFAST 

California cherries. 

Broiled smoked whitefish; creamed 

potatoes; toast; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Stuffed green peppers; creamed 

string-beans; tea. 

Lettuce salad with wafers. 

Cake (from Sunday). 

DINNER 

Cream of asparagus soup (from ends, 

Sunday). 

Sliced lamb, reheated, with tomato 

sauce; potatoes; spinach. 

Cherry pie. 

Coffee. 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Boiled rice and cream. 

Spanish omelette; hashed potatoes, 

browned; corn muffins; coffee. 



Wednesday 

BREAKFAST 

Strawberries. 

Broiled bacon in baked potato shells; 

whole-wheat muflSns; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Veal croquettes (from Tuesday) with 

cream sauce; biscuits; tea. 
Red and white currants; drop-cakes. 

DINNER 

Cream of spinach soup. 

Beef loaf with olive sauce; potato 

souffle ; pease. 

Lettuce and green-pepper salad. 

Fresh pineapple and cake. 

Coffee. 



Thursday 

BREAKFAST 

Cherries. 
Creamed hard-boiled eggs and pep- 
pers on toast; Boston brown 
bread; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Cold sliced beef loaf; deviled eggs; 

tea. 

Strawberries. 



126 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



127 



DINNER 

Pea soup. 
Chicken pot-pie; string-beans; po- 
tatoes. 
Deep rhubarb tart. 
Coffee. 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Red and white currants 

Codfish croquettes; pop-overs; 

cofiee. 

Luncheon 
Tomato toast; diced potatoes; tea. 
Lettuce and string-bean salad (from 

Thursday) with mayonnaise. 
Rhubarb tartlets (from Thursday). 

DINNER 

Planked halibut; creamed new car- 
rots; potatoes. 
Asparagus salad. 
Strawberry cream cake. 
Coffee. 



Cold sliced veal; salad of green pep- 
pers with cheese balls; rolls; cofiee. 
Pineapple and cake. 



Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Cold moulded cereal and red rasp- 
berries and cream. 
Broiled sardines on toast; hashed 
creamed potatoes; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Minced veal and pease; buttered 

toast; tea. 

Cahfornia cherries on lettuce with 

French dressing; wafers. 

Cake (from Sunday). 

DINNER 

Tomato soup (veal bones). 

Hamburg steak balls with fried 

bananas; potatoes; eggplant. 

Strawberry short-cake. 

Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Cherries. 

Creamed halibut in small dishes; 

toasted Boston brown bread; 

coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Creamed chicken on toast (from 

Thursday); tea. 

Chocolate and small cakes. 

DINNER 

Cream of barley soup. 
Club steak with mushrooms; po- 
tatoes; pease. 
Pineapple fritters. 
Coffee. 



Sunday 

BREAKFAST 

Strawberries. 

Poached eggs on fried tomatoes; 

wheat mufEns; coffee. 

DINNER 

Cream of corn soup. 

Roast of veal; cauliflower; potatoes. 

Lettuce and sliced tomato salad. 

Frozen strawberries and cake. 

Coffee. 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 

Parsley omelette; buttered toast 

strips. 

Orange marmalade. 

LUNCHEON 

Stuffed baked tomatoes; French- 
fried potatoes; tea. 
Cherry tartlets. 

DINNER 

Cream of lettuce soup. 

Braised fresh tongue with minced 

vegetables; baked potatoes. 

Lettuce salad. 

Cold almond blanc-mange in glasses. 

Coffee. 



Wednesday 

BREAKFAST 

Strawberries. 
Finnan-haddie with hashed peppers, 
corn bread; coffee. 



LUNCHEON 

Broiled ham strips; creamed pota- 

F toes; tea; biscuits. 

Pineapple and small cakes. 



128 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



DINNER 

Sliced tongue, reheated, with tomato 

sauce; spinach; potatoes. 

Asparagus salad. 

Deep cherry tart. 

Coffee. 



Thursday 

BRE.\KFAST 

Cold cereal, berries and cream. 

Codfish surprise; blueberry muffir 

coffee. 



LUNCHEON 

Ham moulds, filled with eggs; 

baking-rwwder biscuits; olives. 

Lettuce and tomato salad. 

Fresh gingerbread; iced tea. 

DINNER 

Bean soup (from tongue stock). 

Chops; pease; baked new potatoes; 

string-beans. 

Lettuce salad. 

Strawberry surprise cakes. 

Coffee. 



DINNER 

Cream of tomato soup. 

Strips of beef, stewed with vegetables, 

in casserole; baked potatoes. 

Cherry salad on lettuce. 

Currant tart. 

Coffee. 



Sunday 

BREAKFAST 

Cold farina, moulded, with red rasp- 
berries and cream. 
Scrambled eggs; fairy muflSns; 
coffee. 

DINNER 

Cold baked ham; browned potatoes; 

string-beans. 

Lettuce and tomato salad. 

Strawberry ice-cream; cake. 

CoSee. 

SUPPER 

Cold sliced ham; hard-boiled egga 

and mayonnaise; rolls. 

Berries and cake; iced coffee. 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 

Fried mushrooms on toast; corn 

muffins; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Clam fritters; hashed creamed po- 
tatoes; biscuits; tea. 
Currant sherbet; cakes. 



DINNER 

Baked stuffed fish; asparagus; po- 
tatoes. 
Pineapple salad on lettuce. 
Strawberry jelly and whipped cream. 
Coffee. 



Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Melons. 

Fried eggplant with cream sauce; 

biscuits; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Tomatoes stuffed with pease, baked; 

potatoes; tea. 

Lettuce and mayonnaise (from 

Sunday). 

DINNER 

Green-pea soup (from ham bone). 
Veal chops, breaded; spinach; po- 
tatoes. 
Cold baked custard with whipped 
cream; cake. 
Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Strawberries. 
Broiled dried beef; toa.st strips, but- 
tered; orange marmalade; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Fish 80ufl36 (from Friday); baked 

potatoes; pickles. 

Iced chocolate and cake. 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 
Parsley omelette; hashed browned 
potatoes; Parker House rolls; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Baked eggplant and cheese; rolls; 

t«a. 

Berries and cream. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



129 



DINNER 

Planked steak surrounded with pease 

and carrots; potatoes. 

Lettuce and cucumber salad. 

Red raspberry short-cake. 

Cofiee. 



Wednesday 

BBEAKFAST 

Melons. 

Fried tomatoes on toast; poached 

eggs; muffins; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Croquettes (from steak ends) with 

tomato sauce; biscuits. 
Lettuce and cauliflower with may- 
onnaise. 
Iced coffee. 

DINNER (company) 

Iced melons. 
Chilled bouillon with strips of brown 

bread, buttered. 
Roast chicken, jellied; sliced to- 
matoes with French dressing. 
Pineapple with cream mayonnaise 
on lettuce. 
Frozen pudding. 
Coffee. 



BREAKFAST 

Red raspberries and cream. 
Chicken-liver omelette (from Wednes- 
day) ; buttered toast; coffee. 

luncheon 

Chicken in aspic (from Wednesday) ; 

sandwiches. 

Lettuce salad. 

Berries and cream; cakes; iced 

chocolate. 

dinner 

Chicken soup (from bones). 

Mutton chops; pease; potatoes; 

corn. 

Raspberry charlotte. 

Coffee. 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Cold moulded cereal and berries. 

Com fritters; whole-wheat muflans; 

coffee. 



luncheon 

Salmon with sauce tartare; biscuits. 

Green-pepper and cucumber salad. 

Iced tea and fruit. 

DINNER 

Clear tomato soup. 

Broiled bluefish; stuffed baked 

cucumbers; potatoes. 

Lettuce and pepper salad. 

Gooseberry tart. 

Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Melons. 

Green-pea omelette; hashed cream 

potatoes; corn muffins; coffee. 

luncheon 

Fish salad with mayonnaise. 

Individual raspberry short-cakes. 

Iced tea. 



Cream of spinach soup. 

Veal loaf; fried tomatoes; potatoes. 

Home-made charlotte russe. 

Coffee. 



Sunday 

BREAKFAST 

Berries and cream. 
Clam fritters; pop-overs; coffee. 

dinner 

Broiled chickens; pease; creamed 

whole potatoes. 

Tomato salad. 

Pineapple ice-cream; cake. 

Coffee. 

SUPPER 

Lobster salad; sandwiches; olives. 
Iced tea; berries and cake. 



Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Cold cereal and berries. 

Scrambled eggs and broiled bacon, 

corn muffins; cofTee. 

LUNCHEON 

Creamed chicken and green peppers 

in potato border. 

Lettuce and hard-boiled-egg salad. 

Iced chocolate. 



130 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



Veal loaf (from Saturday), sliced and 

heated in tomato sauce; corn 

pudding; potatoes. 

Lettuce salad. 

Gooseberry meringue pie. 

Coffee. 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Blackberries. 

Creamed codfish in baked potatoes; 

buttered toast; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Corn oysters; baking-powder bis- 
cuits; tea. 
Red raspberries and cream; little 
cakes. 



Cream of corn soup. 
Stewed lamb; pease; potatoes. 

Tomato salad. 

Frozen custard and lady-fingers. 

Coffee. 



Wednesday 

BREAKFAST 

Melons. 

Eggs baked in tomatoes; sally-lunn; 

coffee. 

LUNCHEON (company) 

Iced fruit in glasses. 

Fried crabs with sauce tartare. 

Sweetbread croquettes and pease; 

potato balls, browned. 

Cucumber-jelly salad. 

Raspberry ices in gla.sses; cakes. 

Iced fruit lemonade. 

DINNER 

Little Neck clams. 

Broiled Hamburg steak; creamed 

carrots; potatoes. 

Lettuce and pepper salad. 

Berries masked in whipped cream. 

Coffee. 



Thursday 
breakfast 
Berries. 
Broiled finnan-haddie; hashed po- 
tatoes; corn muffins; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Cold baked beans with mayonnaise. 
Fruit and cake; iced coffee. 

DINNER 

Cream of Lima-bean sonp. 

Veal chops; stuffed baked tomatoes; 

potatoes. 

Red raspberry short-cake. 

Coffee. 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Melons. 

Eggs baked in cream in individual 

dishes; blueberry muffins; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Spanish omelette; biscuits: olives. 
Iced chocolate. 

DINNER 

Stuffed and baked whitefish; stewed 

cucumbers; potatoes. 

Lettuce and cauliflower salad. 

Cold cabinet pudding with cream. 

Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 
Eggs baked in green peppers; po- 
tatoes au gratin; sweet muffins; 
coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Creamed whitefi.sh (from Friday); 

fried tomatoes; tea. 

Berries and gingerbread. 

DINNER 

Braised roast of calf's liver; creamed 

new cabbage; potatoes. 

Tomato salad; blueberry tart. 

Coffee. 



TWO SEPTEMBER FUNCTIONS 

A TABLE decoration which can hardly be ex- 
ceeded in beauty may be arranged in the early 
days of fall with pale green and purple grapes, 
with their silvery leaves and tendrils. For either a 
luncheon or a dinner an elaborate and lovely effect 
may be secured with little trouble. 

In the centre place a mirror, round or oval, as is 
the table, and on it put a basket of graceful shape with 
a handle painted with the silver paint found at artists'- 
material shops. All around the edges of the basket 
and mirror put small, delicate grape leaves, letting 
the under side show as much as possible, and from 
the mirror to each cover lay a line of vine.- Fill the 
basket with a few large clusters of green and purple 
grapes, and put small clusters in and out among the 
leaves on the table. Next get candle-shades covered 
with artificial grapes of so pale a green that the light 
will readily show through; they are found in depart- 
ment stores, or one can make them with grapes pur- 
chased of a milliner, using a plain green tissue-paper 
foundation over wire; with these have green candles, 

131 



132 EASY ENTERTAINING 

and you will be delighted with the result. K possible 
have pretty guest cards, deUcately painted in water- 
colors, of bunches of grapes with their leaves, and 
your table will be complete. Fill the small silver bon- 
bon-dishes with pale green candies, and have salted 
pistache nuts with pecans in little glass or silver dishes. 
Be careful to use china which will harmonize with all 
this pale silvery greenness and its contrasting purple, 
or it will spoil everything; white china with a narrow 
gilt edge, or white and green, will be the best. 

Do not place too much emphasis on the idea of the 
grapes in your dinner menu, for it is better to have that 
rather conventional, but begin a Itmcheon with grapes 
a la neige, and close with a bunch of pistache grapes 
for an ice. Both are pretty and will be a decided 
addition to the table. 

A LUNCHEON MENU 

Grapes a la neige. 

Cream of Lima beans with whipped cream, in cups; hot wafers. 

Radishes, olives, salted pecans. 

Sweetbreads in bacon, bread sauce; com fritters. 

Red peppers filled with caiilifiower; tartines of bread and butter 

with cream cheese. 

Pistache grapes, with natural leaves; cakes. 

Coffee. 

The grapes for the first course should be of the 
Malaga variety, but a white California grape is almost 
as good. Wash and dry the large bunches and cut 



EASY ENTERTAINING 133 

them into small clusters, one for each guest. Whip 
the white of an egg tiU half stiff and dip each bunch 
first in this and then in maraschino, and sprinkle 
thoroughly with sugar, using a flour-shaker. Have a 
deep bowl ready in a deeper pan of ice, and lay the 
bunches in and set them away for two hours. Or pack 
the freezer and put them in this, with waxed paper 
between the layers. It is not really necessary to use 
the maraschino in preparing the grapes, for the egg 
will hold the sugar, but many find the flavor greatly 
improved by its use. 

The soup is made by cooking Lima beans with a 
tiny shred of onion, adding rich milk or thin cream, 
pressing all through a fine sieve, and thickening it 
just a little. Serve in hot cups with a spoonful of 
whipped cream on top. 

For the main coturse prepare sweetbreads by wash- 
ing, blanching, and then trimming into rather long 
and narrow pieces. Put a thin slice of bacon around 
each piece and fasten at the back with a tiny Japanese 
toothpick. Fry these to a nice brown and lay each 
on a strip of toast dipped in the pan gravy; lay a 
slice of lemon by each one on the plate. Make a 
bread sauce by this rule and pass with the sweet- 
breads. Simmer for half an hour in a double boiler 
two cups of milk with salt and paprika to taste, a 
slice of onion, two cloves, and a sprig of parsley; 



134 EASY ENTERTAINING 

strain, and add a small cup of soft, fine bread crumbs 
and simmer another half-hour. Fry brown a table- 
spoonful of crumbs and, after taking up the sauce, 
cover it with these. Corn fritters moulded in small 
even shapes like hickory-nuts and fried in deep fat 
are very nice with this course, or you may have 
French pease served in paper cases, one on each 
plate. 

Next comes a very attractive dish, and one es- 
pecially easy to prepare at this time of year. Select 
large, fine scarlet peppers and remove the seeds. Boil 
a cauliflower the day before your luncheon and break 
up into flowerets. Cut a cooked carrot into tiny 
dice and mix with the cauliflower, and fill the peppers. 
Put either a spoonful of rather thin mayonnaise on the 
filling, or French dressing, but do not mix, or the 
salad will be mussy. Last of aU, dot the top of the 
peppers with the carrot, and put on very white lettuce. 
The effect of the scarlet peppers, the pale yellow 
lettuce, the white filling, and the carrots, which tone 
with all the rest, makes one of the prettiest salads of 
the year. 

The final course is pistache ice-cream moulded in 
the form of a bunch of grapes, each bunch laid on a 
few natural leaves. Served with this may be squares 
of sunshine-cake iced with soft boiled frosting. 

A tall glass pitcher of claret cup, or grape juice 




S .2 

si 



EASY ENTERTAINING 135 

made to simulate it, may be a pleasant accompani- 
ment of the luncheon. In making the latter dilute 
a pint of bottled grape juice with as much strong, 
sweetened lemonade, leaving in some small slices of 
lemon. Put a bunch of mint dipped in powdered 
sugar in the mouth of the pitcher. 

For a September dinner-party one may have 
clams, oysters, or small spicy melons for a first course, 
as the weather suggests. If warm, use the melons, 
putting each on several sprays of the same grape 
leaves used in the table decoration. If cold, begin 
with shell-fish. 

Clams, with celery farci and brown bread and butter. 

Radishes, olives, salted nuts. 

Chicken royale. 

Salmon mousse with cream sauce. 

Artichokes, or cauliflower with cheese. 

Filet of beef with fresh mushrooms; French pease and potato 

baUs. 

Lettuce. 

Vienna ice-cream in fancy mould; cakes. 

Coffee; Brie cheese and toasted wafers. 

This is a new preparation for celery farci: Fill the 
small white stalks with a mixture of cream cheese and 
finely chopped green peppers, and flavor with salt. 
For the soup, take a strong chicken stock and add 
small squares of unsweetened custard. The salmon 
mousse is easily prepared and is always delicious. 
Make a white sauce as usual, with a cup of tmilk 



136 EASY ENTERTAINING 

thickened with a tablespoonful of flour and one of 
butter, seasoned with a few drops of onion juice, salt, 
and Cayenne to taste, and a sprig of parsley. When 
cooked smooth, strain and add a cup of cooked salmon 
which has been pounded to a paste. When this 
boils, take from the fire and add the well-beaten yolks 
of three eggs and beat till cold; then add the stiff 
whites, folding them in carefully, and fill three-quar- 
ters full small tin timbale-moulds and bake twenty 
minutes in a pan of hot water. Turn out on a platter 
and pour around the little moulds a white sauce made 
as before, but with pounded shrimp mixed in it. 



AN AUTUMN DINNER AND LUNCHEON 

IN October the autumn entertaining is of a de- 
lightfully informal character, reflecting the life 
of the summer rather than anticipating that of 
the winter. This lends the charm of simplicity to 
both the table and the menu; neither is over-elabo- 
rate. 

For a little dinner-party the hostess may use a 
most effective centrepiece. The ordinary linen and 
lace for the middle of the table is omitted, and its 
place is taken by one of the large, handsome round 
trays of Sheffield plate, on which stands either a 
silver bowl or loving-cup, or else a piece of cut glass 
of similar shape, in which the flowers are put, to reflect 
in the brilliant silver below. All around this, not too 
close together, are small silver dishes alternating with 
others of similar size of the cut glass, and these are 
filled with bonbons, tiny cakes, nuts, jellies, and 
crystallized fruits. The addition of prettily shaded 
candles matching the color of the flowers makes a 
really beautiful and unusual table. 

The purple and lavender garden asters are lovely 

137 



138 EASY ENTERTAINING 

for October dinners, as are also the rose-colored ones 
mixed with white. Besides these there are the new 
fringed dahUas which look like chrysanthemums in 
all the richest shades of crimson; either flower will 
be quite suitable for a dinner-party. 

As to the menu, there is the choice of oysters, 
clams, and fruit for a first course this month, but as 
the small spicy cantaloupes are in perfection now, it 
is well to use them, reserving the other things for 
the winter. These may be on the table, a half for 
each person, each lying on an individual plate on a 
spray of maidenhair fern: 

Cantaloupes. 

Celery, radishes, salted nuts. 

Puree of fowl. 

Mould of halibut with shrimps, white sauce; cucumbers. 

Mushrooms with double cream. 

Breast of duck with orange slices and cturant jelly; stuffed 

eggplant; French pease; sweet-potato souffle'. 

Lettuce with cream cheese and pimolas; wafers. 

Chestnut mousse; small cakes. 

CofiEee. 

The soup is made by stewing either the giblets, 
necks, wings, and drumsticks of the ducks, removed 
before they are roasted, or by taking the dark meat 
of chicken and cooking till tender; it is then mixed 
with a portion of hot bouillon and nibbed through a 
fine sieve and added to the rest of the bouillon till 



EASY ENTERTAINING 139 

it is the consistency of cream; it is served very hot, 
rather highly seasoned, with croutons. 

For the fish course, simmer two sUces of halibut 
with two bay-leaves, pepper, salt, lemon juice, and a 
slice of onion. When tender, remove all the bones 
and skin and flake the fish. Make a pint of rich white 
sauce and divide it, adding half a cupful to the fish; 
press this into a fish-shaped mould and stand m a 
dish of hot water on the stove till needed. Clean a 
can of shrimps and simmer in half a cup of melted 
butter mixed with half as much lemon juice and a 
teaspoonful of chopped parsley. Turn out the fish 
on a platter, surround with the shrimps, and pass the 
rest of the white sauce in a boat. Serve dressed 
cucumbers also. 

Mushrooms are at their best in the dish given, re- 
taining all their flavor. Take the largest you can get, 
remove the stems and peel them. Toast rounds of 
fresh, soft bread and arrange them in a baMng-dish 
and spread with the thickest sweet cream, sprinkling 
with salt and Cayenne; lay one mushroom on each 
round, fill the centre with the cream, salt and pepper, 
cover the dish closely, and bake thirty-five minutes 
in a hot oven. Take out the rounds and lay one on 
each hot plate in serving. 

After this have large, thick slices of hot roasted 
duck breast, with thick peeled slices of orange, each 



140 EASY ENTERTAINING 

one with a spoonful of currant jelly on it. The dish 
is most attractive. The stuffed eggplant is made by 
cutting it lengthwise, removing the centre, pressing it 
till dry, crumbling it and mixing with an equal 
measure of soft bread crumbs; season well, add a 
lump of butter as large as an English walnut to each 
half, and bake half an hour, basting with butter and 
water. Serve the two shells on a platter. 

For the salad, take two Philadelphia cream cheeses 
and mash with two tables poonfuls of cream, and mix 
well with two dozen finely chopped pimolas. Press 
in a mould, and when cold sUce, la5dng the slices on 
lettuce hearts and pouring French dressing over all. 

For the mousse, prepare the day before a pint of 
chestnut puree, by cooking, blanching, and mashing 
the nuts till you have a cupful. You can also make 
half a pint of marrons, by cooking other blanched 
chestnuts in thick syrup and drying them on waxed 
paper in the oven. The next day heat the puree, stir 
into it a small cup of sugar, and set it to cool. Add a 
cup of cut-up marrons, and a little vanilla, and 
lightly mix with a pint of stiffly whipped cream. Put 
in a closely covered mould and pack in ice and salt 
five hours. Turn out on a platter and surround with 
whipped cream, decorating the top with large mar- 
rons and strips of green angehca. 

For an autumn luncheon the same pretty silver 



EASY ENTERTAINING 141 

tray and the purple asters may be used on the table 
as for the dinner. Or quantities of white asters may 
be chosen, with asparagus fern. Candles will scarcely 
be necessary if the day is a bright one; if they are 
used they must, of course, match the color of the 
flowers. Begin the luncheon also with cantaloupes. 
Have the melons on the table, as before: 

Cantaloupes. 

Celery puree with whipped cream; hot wafers. 

Small oysters on bacon and toast. 

Broiled quail; French pease; French fried potatoes; cwmant 

jelly. 

Chicken salad in celery aspic; cheese wafers. 

Peach ice-cream in melon mould with whipped cream; angel's- 

food. 

Coffee. 

The celery soup is one of the daintiest of all purees, 
and especially suitable for a luncheon. 

For the oysters, choose very small ones, and allow 
eight to a person. Make strips of toast and keep hot 
in the oven; cook quickly in a very hot frying-pan 
some strips of delicate, thin bacon without rind, and 
when brown lay one on each strip of toast; put the 
oysters in the frying-pan with the bacon fat which 
remains in it and cook till plump; put them on 
skewers and lay one on each strip of toast; put slices 
of lemon and sprigs of parsley all around the dish. 

Have quail, broiled, or stuffed and roasted; or, 



142 EASY ENTERTAINING 

have squab in its place. Next may come this pretty 
salad: The day before your luncheon make a nice 
chicken salad and mix a cup of mayonnaise with it in 
which you have put a tablespoonful of dissolved gela- 
tine. Set in a bread-pan on ice to harden. Take three 
stalks of celery, cut them up, add a slice of onion, 
salt, Cayenne, a little lemon juice, and a pint and a 
half of water. Simmer till tender, then strain, add a 
very little green coloring and a tablespoonful of dis- 
solved gelatine, and strain through a flannel bag. 
Pour an inch of this jelly in another bread-pan, a size 
larger than the first, and when perfectly firm, take 
out the mould of salad and place it on the jelly. Keep 
the rest of the jelly warm so it will not set, but now 
cool it and pour it all around the salad; set this on 
ice till needed. The next day turn it out on a platter, 
arrange English walnut halves all around the edge, 
surround the whole with lettuce hearts and halved 
hard-boiled eggs, and pass a bowl of mayonnaise 
with it. 

If this salad seems too elaborate for you, try this 
one, which is delicious: Wash white grapes and cut 
each one open on the side so that you can remove its 
seeds. Into this little place press half a pecan nut, 
close the edges as far as possible, and arrange on white 
lettuce hearts, with French dressing over. For the 
final course make a freezer of rich peach ice-cream, 



EASY ENTERTAINING 143 

put in a melon-shaped mould, and turn it out on a bed 
of whipped cream. Or, have this peach surprise: 
Into one quart of cut-up and smoothly mashed peaches 
put a cup of water, a pound of pulverized sugar, and 
the unbeaten whites of five eggs. Put into the freezer 
and turn it till smooth. Serve this in tall glasses, not 
in a mould, and have also a large cake of angel's-food 
to serve with it. 



A COUNTRY DINNER AND SUPPER FOR 
OCTOBER 

NO more delightful way to end the summer can 
be found than a drive on a brilliant moonlit 
October evening to a country house or club 
for a genuine country dinner. Imagine yourself one 
of a coaching-party or as dashing along in an automo- 
bile under the brilliant trees, or even driving sedately 
after the old-fashioned horse. In any case the dinner 
at the end is sure to be served with sauce piquante for 
every course. 

A pretty centrepiece for an informal country dinner 
— and unless it is informal it will not be a success — 
is a toy automobile made of wicker, its edges outlined 
in small asters or daisies. With this there may be 
bunches of the same flowers, or a wreath just above 
the covers, and here goldenrod and purple asters will 
be found effective. Of course greenhouse flowers are 
out of the question, and the autumn leaves which 
may suggest themselves never look well under arti- 
ficial light; any brilliant garden flower will do, how- 
ever, if wild flowers are difficult to procure. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 145 

Small shaded lamps will be pretty on the table, 
prettier, perhaps, than candles, provided they are 
quite small and the shades cover the light. Otherwise 
use candles which have rather plain shades. The table 
may be as elaborate as one pleases, but the surround- 
ings should be taken into consideration so that the 
result will not be incongruous. 

Oysters on the half-shell with cocktail in peppers. 

Celery, radishes, salted nuts. 

Com chowder. 

Deviled crabs; dressed cucumbers; finger-rolls. 

Maryland chicken with cream sauce; mashed potato in shells; 

baked eggplant. 

Celery and pimento salad in cabbage head. 

Halved peaches on sponge-cake with whipped cream. 

Coffee. 

The oysters may be omitted if this is too long a 
menu, but they make an excellent opening for the 
meal. Before they are arranged on an ice bed make 
the usual cocktail mixture with one tablespoonful of 
horseradish, one of vinegar, one of Worcestershire 
sauce, one of tomato catsup, and two of lemon juice, 
with one-half a teaspoonful of Tabasco and as much 
salt. Mix and put this on ice till chilled; half fill 
very small green or red pepper shells with it and 
stand one on each plate. Put half a lemon on, also, 
that those who prefer may use it instead of the cock- 
taU. 



146 EASY ENTERTAINING 

The next course will be found just the thing for 
a country dinner, though it is too heavy for the 
ordinary meal. This recipe may be relied on: 

Corn Chowder. — One quart of fresh corn pulp, 
scraped from the cob, one quart very small Lima 
beans, one-quarter pound salt pork, one cup cream, 
one cup milk, two tablespoonfuls butter, six milk 
crackers, one sUced onion, salt and pepper. 

Put the pork in the frying-pan after cutting into 
bits; brown it, and add the onion. Put the beans 
over in water enough to cover them and simmer till 
tender; put two cups of boiling water on the onion 
and pork, and when the beans are tender strain this 
over them and add the corn; simmer till this too is 
tender; then add the cream, scalded, and the sea- 
soning, with the butter. Soak the spHt crackers in 
the cold milk and put them in the tureen and pour the 
boiling soup over. Potatoes, cut into dice, may be 
substituted for the beans if one prefers. Crab meat, 
deUciously fre,sh, may be purchased at any large 
grocery in tins, with the cleaned crab shells accom- 
panying. Or salmon with a hot mayonnaise or cold 
tartare sauce makes a good fish course. After this 
comes delicious Maryland chicken. Get large spring 
chickens and pan them in the oven till tender. Then 
make a rich batter and dip each piece in and drop into 
a deep kettle of hot fat till brown. Of course only the 



EASY ENTERTAINING 147 

breasts, second joints, and boned drumsticks are to 
be used. Serve this with a rich cream sauce, with 
mashed potato browned in the oven, and pass baked 
eggplant. To prepare this latter, halve the vegetable 
lengthwise and salt, turning each piece down under a 
weight for an hour. Then remove all the pulp from 
the shell, crumb it up and mix with half as much soft 
bread crumbs; put a bit of onion in the frying-pan 
with a large tablespoonful of butter, and mix all 
together, and cook till tender and slightly brown. 
Refill the eggplant shells and heap well, and put in 
the oven till a light crust is formed. Serve on a 
platter with a spoon, each guest to dip a portion from 
the shell. 

For the salad get a small tin of pimentos and cut 
into small pieces and mix with a celery salad, made 
either with celery alone or with half the quantity of 
hard-boiled egg, in either case stirred stiff with mayon- 
naise. Put the pimentos in last, reserving a small half- 
cupful to sprinkle over all. If you choose you may fill 
a cabbage head from which all the centre has been 
removed, with the mixture, passing it on a round 
platter on a bed of lettuce leaves; like the corn 
chowder, this seems especially appropriate for a 
country dinner, but an ordinary salad-bowl is always 
in order. Cheese crackers are nice with this course. 

For a final sweet, take rounds of stale sponge-cake, 



148 EASY ENTERTAINING 

dip each in sherry or maraschino, and lay on each the 
half of a large, pared peach. Fill the centre with 
whipped cream and add bits of candied or mara- 
schino cherries, or angelica. Or, if you prefer an ice, 
have peach surprise served in small rustic cases, 
suitable for this country dinner. The rule for making 
this is very simple: Into one quart of pared and 
chopped peaches stir a cup of water, a pound of sugar, 
and the unbeaten whites of five eggs. Put in the 
freezer and beat till smooth and stiff. Pass sponge- 
cake with it. 

For a country supper in October there are all sorts 
of odd fancies for decoration, not only for the table, 
but for the room in which it is eaten. If you can, 
get small ears of red and white pop-corn, tie bunches 
of them together with the husks, and hang them 
regularly from the ceiUng. Have hollowed-out 
pumpkins set about, filled with nuts; light the room 
with large jack-o'-lanterns on the mantel-shelf and 
in the corners, and fasten stalks of rustling com up 
and down the balustrade of the stairs, with jack-o'- 
lanterns at the top and bottom. For the table have a 
centrepiece of oak branches covered with acorns, and 
get little papier-mache pumpkins at the confectioner's 
and cut out the top and bottom, paint a face on each 
and leave a slit at the eyes and mouth for the light to 
shine through, and you will find you have most 



EASY ENTERTAINING 149 

effective candle shades. For the supper itself have 
things hot and spicy, with enough plainer dishes to 
afford a contrast. 

Canapes of devUed sardines. 

Peppers filled with creamed oysters; Saratoga potatoes; celery; 

olives. 

Cold turkey with chestnut boulettes. 

Coffee in large cups. Salted nuts. 

Lobster salad served in shells; minced-ham sandwiches. 

Peaches Mephisto; fruit cake. 

For the canapes, mash the sardines, add a half-tea- 
spoonfid of dry mustard, a salt-spoonful of Cayenne, 
and salt to taste; wet this with lemon juice till the 
consistency of thick cream, spread on thin buttered 
bread cut into strips, and serve hot. The chestnut 
boulettes are made by this rule: One cup cooked, 
peeled, and mashed chestnut pulp, two egg yolks 
slightly beaten, two tables poonfuls cream, one table- 
spoonful sugar, one teaspoonful sherry, a little salt, 
and, last, the whites of the eggs stiffly beaten, put in 
after the mixture is cool. Mould into small balls, 
egg and crumb and fry in deep fat. 

The final course for this supper is peaches Mephisto. 
Drain a quart can of those which have been put up 
at home with the pits in, and put in a silver baking- 
dish without the porcelain lining, or in any baking- 
dish which is in another and ornamental one. Pour 
around the fruit the syrup from a good-sized bottle 



150 EASY ENTERTAINING 

of maraschino cherries and set in a hot oven till well 
heated. Sprinkle well with granulated sugar on re- 
moving them, and pour a glass of brandy over all. 
Set on fire quickly and put on the table. 



HALLOWE'EN SUPPERS 

HALLOWE'EN is one of the most delightful 
opportunities for informal entertaining, for 
there is a certain infectious gayety in the air 
which insures success to any hospitable enterprise. 
A supper party in some form is the best thing to 
plan for, one preceding the amusements of the eve- 
ning in the shape of that dehghtful meal a " high tea," 
or one served later on, possibly at midnight, the hour 
of witchery. 

First of all, the decorations of the dining-room and 
the table must be considered, and these should never 
follow conventional lines. Gas-light and even lamp- 
light must be tabooed, and a more dim and spectral 
illumination sought. If there is a high mantel in the 
room as well as a sideboard, stand large jack-o'-lanterns 
cut from pumpkins on them, one on each end; these 
will give a good effect, but they will not light the 
room sufficiently, so draw a number of wires from one 
picture-moulding to the other, and suspend a quantity 
of yellow Japanese lanterns from them, grouping 



152 EASY ENTERTAINING 

them in the corners and over the table. Then if still 
more light seems necessary, put yellow-shaded candles 
on the table, but beware of getting it too briUiant. 
Use large vases of yellow chrysanthemums about the 
room, and have a centrepiece of them on the table. 
A characteristic one may be made by cutting the 
top off a large pumpkin, and using it, hollowed out, 
as a bowL If one cannot obtain chrysanthemums to 
fill it, golden-rod will do as well. 

The cards on the table may be of burnt leather, 
decorated with a sketch of a witch in some conven- 
tional attitude; these are easily prepared at home 
with a paint-brush and some dark brown color, if 
one does not understand pyrography. 

For a high tea, which, by- the- way, should be 
served at seven o'clock, lay the table as for luncheon, 
with either doilies or a rather elaborate cloth. In- 
deed the meal resembles luncheon in many ways, 
beginning as it does with a cup of bouillon or a cream 
of some vegetable, then a hot dish or two, with tea 
or coffee, and a salad; but there the resemblance 
ends, for the high tea must end with waffles, if it is 
to be worthy of its name. To insure the dreams of 
goblins and the frightful glimpses of futurity which 
one's Hallowe'en slumbers should not fail to bring, 
it is well to have one's menu decidedly indigestible. 
Various combinations of lobster and cheese are there- 



EASY ENTERTAINING 153 

fore especially recommended; such a supper as this 
should produce the desired effects: 

Bouillon. 

Lobster Newburg. 

Cheese soxiffle. 

Roast quail with celery salad; hot rolls; coffee. 

Waffles and honey. 

The souffle may be baked in small dishes; it is 
easily prepared and sure to be good if it is served at 
once when taken from the oven. If this seems too 
elaborate a menu, this one is simpler: 

Oyster bisque. 

Fish cutlets with sauce tartare; cucumbers. 

Broiled chicken with pease; rolls and coffee. 

Lobster salad. 

"Waffles and maple syrup. 

These cutlets or croquettes may be made of canned 
salmon or of any fish in market, such as halibut or 
cod. The waffles may be replaced by sliced or frozen 
peaches, if they are thought more desirable. 

If instead of a tea at seven o'clock a midnight 
supper seems more in keeping with the occasion, a 
somewhat similar menu may be offered, but the room 
and table should be prepared with quite as much care 
with the same lanterns and flowers. The round table 
from which the refreshments are to be served to those 
sitting about the room may have the salad, sandwiches 



154 EASY ENTERTAINING 

and cake upon it, and the hot dishes may be brought 
in from the kitchen. 

A cup of bouillon or cream soup may come fixst, or 
the course can be omitted, and the next, of creamed 
oysters, may begin the meal; these may be prettily 
served in small paper cups decorated with yellow 
flower petals lying on a spray of green leaves. Serve 
rolled sandwiches with this course, with or without 
a filling of lettuce and mayonnaise. After this have 
a salad of chicken or lobster with cheese-straws, and 
last serve an ice in some shape, such as a small orange- 
colored pumpkin, or an ear of corn in white with 
pistache leaves. Or, if the ice is to be home-made, 
try a delicious one: Fill sherbet-glasses half full of 
sHced oranges, pineapple, and banana, with powdered 
sugar and sherry, and put a delicate lemon ice over 
the fruit, quite concealing it, and smooth the top 
with the blade of a knife until it is level. The coffee 
comes with this course, and cake as well. A rich fruit 
cake is certain to provoke dreams sufficiently exciting 
to satisfy the most exacting, but it is wise to have 
something plainer for the timid. A yellow cake, such 
as the excellent one called " sunshine," which is an 
angel's food with the yolks of eight eggs in addition 
to the eleven whites, is sure to be liked. 

After all, the chafing-dish is the thing for a small 
Hallowe'en company. The table may be laid as 



EASY ENTERTAINING 155 

before, the honored utensil at one end, balanced by 
a coffee service opposite. A bowl of salad may be on 
one side, and plates of sandwiches, dishes of olives, a 
platter of cold chicken or turkey, and small dishes of 
salted nuts will fill up the rest. A Welsh rarebit is 
decidedly the best thing to make, but be sure to have 
everything ready on the tray before you begin. 
Curried oysters, too, are nice, or, if you wish something 
not so hackneyed as either of these, have pigs in 
blankets. The " pig " is a large oyster, folded in a 
very thin sUce of bacon pinned with a tiny wooden 
toothpick. The bacon browns quickly in the hot 
pan, and the extra amount of juice from the oysters 
may be turned out from time to time. Some strips of 
hot toast should be ready, and the oysters are to be 
laid on these, one on each, with a slice of lemon. The 
bacon seasons the dish to some extent, but it is well 
to salt and pepper the oysters before wrapping them 
up. One of the best things to cook in the chafing- 
dish, if you are seeking something simple, is fried 
oysters, as these may be prepared in the afternoon — 
as the pigs in blankets should be also — and quickly 
cooked when the proper time arrives. A supper of 
cold turkey or tongue, with lettuce sandwiches, a 
dish of fried oysters, and a lobster or celery salad 
with coffee, is not too much trouble for even the 
least experienced housekeeper to prepare, and it is 



156 EASY ENTERTAINING 

certainly suitable for a cool October night, when 
appetites are keen. 

When the chafing-dish is not otherwise needed on 
this evening, it is a good plan to use it for roasting 
chestnuts. Either the large Italian nuts or our 
smaller ones may be used, and all that is necessary is 
to cut a slit in each nut, and cover them in the hot 
pan until they are crisp. They make a most ap- 
propriate finish for any Hallowe'en meal. 



THE THANKSGIVING DINNER. NO. i 

THOSE who can find chestnut burrs in the woods 
near their homes have at hand something 
really lovely by way of decoration for the 
table on Thanksgiving day. Get as many as you 
can attached to their stems, and add to these as many 
more which have fallen to the ground stemless. Be- 
gin by putting those with stems into a bowl, and 
eke out the number with long twigs with burrs, 
open or closed, fastened to them with invisible wires, 
so that there seems no difference in the two kinds. 
When the bowl is full, put bright yellow leaves in 
among the brown burrs to reUeve the color. Then 
make a circle on the cloth of more leaves with burrs 
mixed in. 

Where chestnuts cannot be found, any other nut 
burrs are just as artistic, and when combined with 
bright leaves make the most appropriate centrepiece 
for the day. For lighting the table have candle shades 
which harmonize with the nut and leaf colors. A 
clever woman who can make her own shades can 
easily paint some a pale, clear brown, and edge them 
with little painted leaves of different tones. 

157 



158 EASY ENTERTAINING 

As to the menu, that should be rather simple. A 

good plan is to arrange something plain first and then 

add to it if the number of guests is sufficient to make 

it seem necessary to have more courses. That is, 

arrange to begin with soup, and when the whole of 

the dinner is written out and planned add to this a 

course of grapefruit if it seems too brief, and so on. 

Cream of oyster soup. 

Fish cutlets, shrimp sauce. 

Roast ducks; pease and onions; caramel sweet-potatoes. 

Celery Toulousane, with mayonnaise. 

Mince pie; cheese. 

Pineapple ice in glasses; cakes. 

Coffee. 

For the soup get a quart of small oysters and sim- 
mer them in their own juice till their edges curl; 
strain, and set the oysters aside; measure the juice, 
and add to a cupful a quart of rich milk; thicken very 
slightly, using only a teaspoonful of flour rubbed with 
a dessertspoonful of butter; strain, and serve. The 
oysters can be used for supper Thanksgiving night in 
a scallop or creamed. 

For the fish course get some slices of a white fish, 
flounder, halibut, or cod, and cut them into chop- 
shaped pieces; dip each in fine crumbs, then in half- 
beaten egg yolk, then in crumbs, and set aside for 
two hours; fry two at a time in a wire basket, and 
drain on paper in the oven; stick a bit of parsley in 
the end of each and lay on a napkin on a platter with 



EASY ENTERTAINING 159 

lemon slices and parsley. It is not really necessary to 
have a sauce with these chops, but for those who wish 
it have one made of shrimps: Clean them, drop into 
ice-water for an hour, wipe dry, and chop a cupful; 
make a cup of rich white sauce, and mix the shrimps 
in, seasoning well. Pass this in a boat after the fish. 

For stuffing the ducks here is something very good 
indeed: Stew half a pound of prunes till they are 
just soft enough to remove the stones; cut each one 
into four pieces; add to them a cup of English wal- 
nut meats broken into bits, a cup of soft white bread 
crumbs, salt, a Httle Cayenne, a heaping tablespoon- 
ful of soft butter, and one thin sUce of onion minced 
very fine; put all into a hot frying-pan and stir till 
the crumbs crisp and brown, adding a little more 
butter if necessary; wipe out the inside of the ducks, 
fill them two-thirds full, and roast them with the 
breasts down; serve with giblet gravy and slices of 
seedless oranges; do not peel these, but put a small 
spoonful of stiff currant jelly on each one. 

Pease and onions are supposed to accompany ducks, 
but usually not in one dish; however, here is some- 
thing new: Drain a can of pease and reheat with 
salt, pepper, and a tablespoonful of cream. Boil some 
small onions, and, with a sharp knife, cut each one 
in two; season well, put the pease on a hot dish, and 
lay the onions in among them, the cut side down, and 



160 EASY ENTERTAINING 

serve. Another way of preparing this dish is to get 
the smallest-sized onions, boil them, and peel till they 
are no larger than the end of one's thumb, and then 
mix them with pease. 

The sweet- potatoes are to be boiled and sliced; 
then each piece is dipped first in melted butter and 
then in granulated sugar, and put into a hot oven till 
a coating of brown caramel is formed; sometimes 
brown sugar is used instead of white. 

Celery also should go with ducks, and a new salad 
is ready just in time for this dinner. Get some nice 
stalks the day before Thanksgiving and cut them 
into long but even pieces, trimming the broad ends 
down a little. Cook these carefully on the back of 
the fire until they are transparent; drain, and salt 
them; let them stand on ice over-night. The next 
day arrange them on a bed of lettuce leaves in layers, 
with a thin spreading of mayonnaise between each 
two, concealing this by putting on the outside layer 
with none on top, since that below will sufficiently 
flavor it. Over all scatter freely some chopped pimen- 
toes, such as come in little cans for a small price. 

Mince pie is one of the staple dishes for Thanks- 
giving day. One excellent rule for the meat, which, 
of course, must be made at least two weeks in advance, 
is this: Mince fine two cups of boiled beef and six 
apples; add a quart and a half of sweet cider, a cup 



EASY ENTERTAINING 161 

of currant jelly, the grated rind and juice of two 
lemons and two oranges, two cups of sugar, one table- 
spoonful, each, of salt and cinnamon, one teaspoonful 
each of cloves and allspice, one-half teaspoonful of 
nutmeg and pepper, two pounds of seeded raisins, 
one pound of currants, a quarter of a pound of 
shredded citron, a pound of chopped suet, and a cup 
of shredded candied orange peel. Flavor with the 
rich juice of spiced or pickled peaches to taste, or 
add vinegar boiled down to a syrup with sugar. This 
rule makes much richer and more spicy pies than any 
other, and will be found delicious. 

After so heavy a meal a light course of sherbet 
served in glasses will be found refreshing; this can 
easily be made of canned pineapple; merely chop 
fine a cup of pulp, make a quart of lemon ce as usual, 
and when it is half frozen put in the fruit and freeze 
stiff. Serve small cakes or sweet wafers only with 
this course, and finish with black coffee. 

A dinner in which the national bird figures as the 
piece de resistance may have some quite different 
dishes: 

Grapefruit. 

Clear soup with tapioca. 

Roast turkey stuffed with chestnuts; sweet-potato puff; creamed 

spinach; cranberry jelly. 

Orange and grapefruit salad, French dressing. 

Frozen pudding. 

Crackers and cheese and coffee. 



162 EASY ENTERTAINING 

Take the pulp out of the grapefruit and put it 
into small glasses, adding a few seeded white grapes; 
serve this very cold indeed. A good plan is to pack 
the fruit pulp, after sweetening it well, in a small 
covered pail, and set this in a dish of cracked ice for 
an hour or more, putting it into the glasses at the 
last moment before it is served. Stand each glass on 
a small plate, and put this on a larger one at each 
cover before the guests sit down; then remove the 
small plate and glass at the same time after the course. 

The soup is a clear strong stock made at least one 
day before Thanksgiving; it should have a basis of 
beef bones and vegetables, and when clarified and 
ready should be brown; if it is not, add a little kitchen 
bouquet; half an hour before serving this heat it, 
and add a tablespoonful of pearl tapioca which has 
been soaked four or five hours; season well. 

The turkey stuffing is made of boiled and skinned 
chestnuts, cooked very soft and mixed with bread 
crumbs without mashing; season with salt and pepper 
and chopped parsley, browning in the frying-pan with 
a tablespoonful of onion; do not add herbs of any 
kind, since they detract from the flavor of the bird; 
roast with the breast down. Have ready cranberry 
jelly to pass with it; make it in plenty of time, and 
strain it, setting it in a mould. 

Boil spinach, drain, chop very fine, season to taste 



EASY ENTERTAINING 163 

and beat to a soft mass with a gill of thick cream. 
Lay small triangles of toast about the edge of the dish. 

The potatoes should be freshly boiled; peel them, 
and mash, adding cream or rich milk; season with salt 
and pepper and, when they are foamy, the beaten 
yolks of two eggs; pile lightly in a dish in pyramid 
shape, and set in the oven to brown slightly. 

For the salad, cut some even lengths of celery, 
scrape them, and, by cutting down each four-inch 
piece, make narrow slivers; lay these on a little let- 
tuce and set cup-shaped leaves around the edge; make 
some sections of large seedless oranges and others of 
grapefruit, peeling off all the transparent skin from 
each one, and cutting it with the scissors. Into the 
first cup put two sections of orange; into the next, 
two of grapefruit, and so on all around the dish; set 
on the ice till very cold, and, just before serving, cover 
with French dressing. 

Instead of mince pie for this dinner make a -frozen 
pudding somewhat resembling it. Scald a quart of 
rich milk with a heaping cup of sugar; add two 
squares of chocolate and cook till smooth, adding a 
dozen whole cloves and a stick of cinnamon. Cool, 
flavor with vanilla, and strain. Chop a cup of stoned 
raisins; add to them any fruit you have which is not 
too moist — such as candied cherries, or a tables poon- 
ful of candied orange peel minced very fine; freeze 



164 EASY ENTERTAINING 

the cream, and when half done fold in the fruit, and 
freeze stiff; let this stand to ripen for at least two 
hours. Meanwhile sweeten, flavor, and whip a cup of 
thick cream, and when stiff bury this in ice and salt 
also; turn out the pudding on a cold dish, and put 
spoonfuls of the cream all around it as though it were 
pudding sauce. 

Instead of this pudding there may be one, perhaps, 
more simply made, using figs generously. Get a 
pound of nice figs; chop them, and wet with a quarter 
of a cup of cream; let them stand and slowly absorb 
this; scald a quart of thin cream with a cup of sugar, 
flavor, and cool; add a cup of whipped cream, and 
freeze soft; then stir in the figs, and freeze stiff. 
Serve in a mould by packing the cream when stiff and 
letting it stand two hours in ice and salt. 

A little dinner for two who have much to be thank- 
ful for may be easily prepared and still be quite 
elaborate enough: 

Oysters on the half-shell. 

Cream of celery soup. 

Roast chicken; baked sweet-potatoes; pease; currant jelly. 

Cream cheese and nut salad. 

Fig cream. 

Coflfee. 

Instead of the oysters there may be one grapefruit, 
the pulp mixed with grapes or the pulp of an orange, 
if that is preferred. The salad is made by chopping 



EASY ENTERTAINING 165 

half a cup of English walnuts and mixing them with a 
five-cent cream cheese; season with salt and Cayenne, 
and roll into balls as large as a butternut; lay one in 
a cup of lettuce for each, and add French dressing. 

For the cream, sweeten, flavor, and whip one cup- 
ful or even less; chop six figs; put the cream into a 
little covered pail, and set in ice and salt till it is 
stiff, which will take at least two hours; open it, fold 
in the figs, cover again, and let it stand an hour more; 
serve in glasses. 

When dinner is served during the day, as it is apt 
to be on Thanksgiving, there is usually a demand for 
a late supper. For this utilize as far as possible the 
remains of the roast from dinner, supplementing it 
with a course of salad. Or there may be a first hot 
course. In the first menu for dinner the oysters were 
omitted from the soup; those would be excellent first. 
Cream them, put them in small dishes, add sifted 
bread crumbs and bits of butter, and brown. in the 
oven. Serve with these slices of duck, bread-and- 
butter sandwiches, and coffee in large cups. 

For a second course have one of the two celery 
salads suggested for dinner, whichever was not used 
then. Or have grapefruit on lettuce with French 
dressing. Or have peeled seedless oranges cut in 
thick slices, and lay one for each person on white 
lettuce and put half an English walnut on top, and 



166 EASY ENTERTAINING 

add French dressing. Instead of having sandwiches 
with the first course you could have buttered rolls 
then if you prefer, and have olive sandwiches served 
with this salad. 

A third course is really not necessary, but if it is 
desired, have something very hght and simple. 
Halves of meringue shells filled with whipped cream 
and cherries are attractive; or the cream could be 
whipped, sweetened, and frozen by packing it in ice 
and salt for four hours, and the shells filled with that. 

With the turkey sUces first at supper, there 
might be large French chestnuts in cream as the hot 
dish; stew them till the shells will come off; then stew 
them again till they are tender; drop into ice-water, 
and remove the brown shells; or leave these on and 
merely cook them till tender, and cream them; sea- 
son highly, and serve very hot, one spoonful by each 
portion of turkey. There might be cranberry jelly, 
also, with this, and biscuits or rolls, and coffee; and 
then the salad. 

Or, for a change, the turkey slices might be served 
with latticed potatoes, rolls, and coffee, and the chest- 
nuts cooked, peeled, chilled, and served on lettuce 
with mayonnaise in a very delicious salad. The final 
course could be whole preserved peaches and cake. 



THE THANKSGIVING DINNER. NO. 2 

AFTER the use for long years of a pumpkin 
centrepiece on the table on Thanksgiving day 
many a hostess will heave a sigh of rehef to 
have something suggested which is quite as char- 
acteristic in color as the pumpkin, and far more 
artistic. This is a great, beautiful bunch of yellow 
chrysanthemums set off and relieved by large sprays 
of dead, brown oak leaves. The combination is 
really lovely, and most suitable to autumn, and to a 
pretty dinner-table. If the first course is grapefruit, 
this can be arranged before the family and guests sit 
down, and the yellow will still further emphasize that 
of the flowers. The brown can be made more con- 
spicuous by using marrons glaces in tall compotes or 
in small flat dishes, or chocolate bonbons can be put 
here and there. Candles may have yellow chrysan- 
themum shades, also, with fluffy edges; small paper 
flowers can be bought and sewed firmly on plain 
foundations, or they can be purchased ready for use. 
This is a menu easily prepared and of distinct Thanks- 
giving flavor: 

167 



168 EASY ENTERTAINING 

Grapefruit. 
Radishes, salted nuts, olives. 
Cream of oyster soup. 
Individual chicken pies. 
Roast turkey, cranberry sauce, in moulds; mashed sweet- 
potatoes; cauliflower au gratin. 
Celery mayonnaise, with lettuce hearts. 
Pumpkin ices. 
Crackers and cheese. Coffee. 

If one is so lucky as to have the tall, beautiful 
glasses made especially for grapefruit, the pulp of 
the fruit is removed in spoonfuls and put into the 
small inside cups, and the cracked ice fills the space 
between them and the outer edge of the glass. A 
little sugar is added to the fruit, and a taste of rum, 
or one or two maraschino cherries. Without the 
glasses the fruit is well chilled and put in spoonfuls 
into the emptied shells, and these are served on 
small plates with orange-spoons by each one, and the 
same flavoring and sweetening used as before. The 
soup is one of the staple dishes for the day, but made 
in a rather different manner from the old-fashioned 
sort. The oysters are first washed and dried, and with 
a pair of scissors the hard muscular end is quite cut 
off without breaking into the soft half; the milk is 
put on the fire with these hard bits and the oyster 
juice, and allowed to grow very hot, but never to 
boil; then it is slightly thickened with a tablespoonful, 
each, of melted butter and flour and strained care- 



EASY ENTERTAINING 169 

fully, and seasoned with salt and pepper. After this, 
the round, soft ends of the oysters are put in, the milk 
heated again to the boihng-point, and the soup at 
once taken up and served. A delicious flavor is giwn 
by the addition of just a dash of sherry. 

In place of fish a pretty course may come next, 
in the shape of little individual chicken pies, baked 
in round tins and with their edges fluted; a bit of 
parsley stands up in each one. Instead of this 
course there may be fish, if that is preferred, some- 
thing like creamed halibut or scallops, served in small 
dishes. 

The turkey can have a bread stuffing mixed with 
a pint of oysters; to make it, crumble soft bread 
quite fine and add salt and pepper and one slice of 
onion, minced. Put a large tablespoonful of butter 
into a hot pan and when it browns put in the crumbs 
and toss and stir them till they are crisp and brown 
also. Then add the drained oysters and let them 
barely plump, as they will cook again in the turkey. 
Stuff the bird and roast it upside down in a deep pan, 
basting it frequently, so that the juices will run down 
into the breast and make that delicious. In place of 
the oysters, boiled and peeled chestnuts can be used 
in the stuffing by chopping them coarsely and adding 
them to the crumbs in the pan, browning the two 
together. 



170 EASY ENTERTAINING 

Boil the sweet-potatoes, mash and season them, 
and add a small half-cup of cream or rich milk; put 
them through the press and heap Hghtly in a hot 
covered dish. 

For the cranberry sauce, wash the berries and put 
them over to cook in barely enough water to float 
them; simmer till aU are one mass of pulp, then 
measure an equal amount of sugar and boil hard for 
one minute; remove from the fire, put through a 
press, and pour into one mould or into individual 
moulds. 

The cauliflower may be boiled a day in advance of 
the dinner; then an hour before it may be picked up 
into flowerets and put into a baking-dish with thick 
white sauce between its layers. Make this with a 
large tablespoonful of butter and two of flour, with 
half a cup of milk only, so that it shall be quite stiff. 
Put fine sifted crumbs all over the top, and bits of 
butter, and bake brown. 

The salad is very nice, and one quite new. To make 
it, get some nice celery and cut it up into inch lengths 
and split these till they are in bits like knitting-needles. 
Wipe them dry and put them on ice to grow crisp. 
Beat the yolk of an egg very stiff and drop in olive- 
oil till you have a cup of mayonnaise, thinning with 
lemon juice when it grows too thick to beat; season 
with salt and Cayenne. Dissolve a tablespoonful of 



EASY ENTERTAINING 171 

gelatine in a little cold water and put it over the steam 
of the teakettle till it is smooth and thin; cool this, 
beat into the mayonnaise, and add the celery; put 
all into a smooth, round mould, Uke a pail, and put it 
away overnight. The next day turn it out on a flat 
dish and surround it with white lettuce leaves. Serve 
thin crackers with it and oHves. Or, in place of this 
salad, crush two cream cheeses, mix with salt, Cayenne, 
and a Httle cream, and add a cup of black olives 
chopped fine, and half a cup of chopped walnuts; 
press this into a small mould and serve in Uttle slices 
on lettuce with French dressing. 

For a pretty final course appropriate to Thanks- 
giving day, have a pumpkin ice. Get some of the 
little glass cups used for serving lemonade, and cut 
crepe-paper of a vivid shade of orange into strips of 
about five inches wide and long enough to fit around 
the top of the glass cup; leave one edge of the paper 
as it is, and from the rest cut long, slender petals, like 
those of the pumpkin blossom; cut similar strips of 
green crepe-paper, but not so wide, and make these 
also into petals, shorter and wider; put first the orange 
strip around the glass, and outside it the green one, 
and around both tie tightly a narrow, green ribbon to 
hold them in place. These make the prettiest of 
flower cups to hold the ice course, which is also of 
pumpkin color. To make this, get some small thin- 



172 EASY ENTERTAINING 

skinned oranges and squeeze them till you have nearly 
a pint of juice; add to this the juice of two lemons, a 
small cup of sugar-and-water syrup and two egg 
whites, slightly beaten, and fill up with a pint of hot 
water; stir well, strain, and cool; add a trifle of 
orange fruit coloring if the pumpkin shade is not 
sufficient; freeze rather firm, remove the dasher and 
pack it down, and let it stand two hours to ripen. 
In serving, heap the cups between the flower petals, 
and send to the table on small plates. Cake can be 
offered with the ice if desired, and then may come a 
final course of toasted crackers and Brie cheese, with 
black coffee. 

The marrons glaces, which are delicious, but, if 
you buy them, are extremely costly, can readily be 
made at home. Get a quart of Italian chestnuts and 
boil them till the skins are soft; make a cut in the 
shell of each for the steam to escape, and then peel it 
off. Make a thick syrup of a cup of sugar and two 
tablespoonfuls of water and boil till it threads; drop 
in a few chestnuts and cook till they are somewhat 
transparent, but do not let them come to pieces; lift 
them out with a skimmer, and lay them on paraflSn 
paper to dry. 

Another Thanksgiving dinner may be of equal 
length with this one, but be rather unlike it in most 
of the courses: 



EASY ENTERTAINING 173 

Oysters on the half-shell. 

Radishes, olives, and salted nuts. 

Cream of clam soup. 

Slices of salmon, boiled, with HoUandaise sauce. 

Roast turkey; browned sweet-potatoes; French pease; sweet 

pickled peaches. 

Slices of duck with celery mayoimaise. 

Fig ice-cream; cake. 

Toasted crackers. Brie or Camembert cheese; coffee. 

The oysters are served in a very attractive way; 
the shells are laid on an ice bed in shallow plates as 
usual, but the ice is covered with the deep red-brown 
galyx leaves, to be had at any florist's; the lemon 
half is put in the middle and the leaves laid in a 
regular circle, with the oysters on top. For the soup, 
use either soft or hard shelled clams; chop them, add 
them to a quart of rich milk, thicken slightly, season 
with Cayenne, and let the whole simmer for five 
minutes; then strain and serve with hot crackers. 

Boil the salmon all in one piece in cheese-cloth and 
slice with a sharp knife. Arrange the fish in overlap- 
ping pieces on a long, narrow platter, with a napkin 
underneath; garnish with lemon and parsley, and 
pass the sauce in a boat. 

The duck can be either a wild one or one of our 
own domestic birds; roast it and slice the breast 
only, and serve with the same celery mayonnaise sug- 
gested in the first dinner. 

The fig ice-cream is particularly nice. Chop half 



174 EASY ENTERTAINING 

SL pound of figs, wet them with half a cup of warm 
water, and let them stand to soften, mashing them 
occasionally. Scald a quart of thin cream or rich 
milk with a scant cup of sugar, and add the figs; put 
all through the puree press, or leave the figs as they 
are. Cool and freeze; remove the dasher and pack 
down the cream well, and let it stand two hours before 
serving. This can also be made with preserved figs, 
and is fully as nice, and rather richer. A good addi- 
tion to the figs is a small cup of shced citron or candied 
cherries, cut fine; with these, of course, the cream is 
not to be strained; the fruit is put in when the cream 
is half frozen. Small families who want a dinner not 
as long as either of these can have something like 
this: 

Grapefruit. 

Clear soup with croutons. 

Radishes, celery, olives, salted nuts. 

Roast turkey or chicken; mashed potatoes; cauliflower; currant 

jeUy. 

Orange and nut salad, with crackers. 

Pumpkin pie with whipped cream. 

Nuts and raisins. 

Coffee. 

For the salad, get some seedless oranges and slice 
them in rather thick pieces after peeling. Put these 
in an overlapping circle on a glass dish, and in the 
thick middle pile watercress or the best pieces of a 
head of lettuce. On each slice of orange, in the middle, 



EASY ENTERTAINING 175 

lay half an English walnut; cover all with French 
dressing just before serving. This salad must be very 
cold. 

One of the poorest of all dishes is a pumpkin pie 
which is not what it ought to be, and one of the best 
is a perfect pie. The trouble is that in making it the 
ingredients are not rich enough; thick cream and 
plenty of eggs are really essential to its composition. 
This recipe is very nice: Get a small pumpkin and 
cut it up without peeling it; put it into a covered 
colander and steam till soft, and then remove the 
peel; put it into a dish in the oven and leave the door 
open till it is dry, but be careful not to let it grow 
brown or bake. Press it through the colander and 
measure; to two and a half cups of pulp add two cups 
of cream, or very rich milk, one teaspoonful each of 
salt, butter, cinnamon, and ginger, a tablespoonful of 
molasses, sugar to taste, and, after cooling and beating 
well, two weU-beaten eggs, or the yolks of four. 
Make a rich pie-crust, and line an extra large and deep 
tin, and leave an edge on top; pour in the pumpkin, 
bake slowly forty minutes, or a little more, till there 
is a good brown crust on top; serve very cold, and 
all around the edge put large spoonfuls of thick 
whipped cream — a modern idea, but a great im- 
provement on the old-fashioned plan. 

For those who feel that Thanksgiving day is not 



176 EASY ENTERTAINING 

properly kept without a mince pie in addition to a 
pumpkin, this is a good rule for making up a quantity 
of the meat: Chop fine three pounds of lean boiled 
beef and a pound and a half of suet; three quarts of 
chopped apples; a quart of stoned raisins; two cups 
of currants; a quarter of a pound of citron, cut thin; 
a cup of molasses; the juice of two oranges and two 
lemons, and the grated rind of one of each; two nut- 
megs; a tablespoonful of salt; three cups of sugar; 
two cups of cider; a cup of sherry, and brandy to 
taste. All the dry ingredients are to be put together 
first, then the liquids added; it must be well mixed 
and packed in an earthen jar, and it must not be used 
for at least a week after mixing. 

When a mince pie is served alone as a final course 
at dinner, it is a good plan to cover it thickly with 
powdered sugar and pour brandy over it, and set it 
on fire as it is sent to the table. Mince pies should 
always be served slightly warm, not enough to melt 
the suet in them, but far from cold, when the suet is 
unpleasantly discernible. 

A good ice-cream with which to end this dinner, 
either after the pies or in place of them, is made with 
Canton ginger. Get a small pot, take out the contents, 
drain off the juice and chop the ginger. Scald a pint 
of cream and a pint of milk, add the juice, and, if 
necessary, sugar enough to make it sweet, and then 



EASY ENTERTAINING 177 

pour it slowly over the beaten whites of four eggs; 
put it on the stove in a double boiler and cook till 
smooth and thick; cool it, and freeze; when stiff, 
take out the dasher and put in the chopped ginger; 
stir well, pack down tightly, and set away the freezer 
for two hours before serving. 



MEN'S DINNERS 

SOMETIMES a man plans a dinner party for 
his men friends without the assistance of his 
wife or his sisters and gives it at his club; but 
there are other occasions when he likes to gather a 
company about his own home board. Both he and 
his family regard the giving of the dinner as quite a 
serious matter, much more difficult than the ordinary 
dinner party to both men and women. But, after 
all, men's dinners are much like others except that 
they have fewer light and sweet dishes and more 
substantial ones. If one remembers to have a hand- 
some table and a good, solid, and yet delicious meal, 
it will be sure to be satisfactory. 

Lay the table as usual, but have it rather more 
dignified than is customary. Do not have a quantity 
of small dishes, nor many vases of flowers, nor very 
ornate china or glass. Have the floral centrepiece one 
large bunch of American Beauties or well-blown pink 
roses; use two low candelabra to light the table, with 

pink or white shades; have severely plain place-cards, 

178 



EASY ENTERTAINING m 

and handsome but rather plain china, and not too 
much silver. 

Begin the meal with a relish and end it with a 
strong cheese with hard biscuit, or follow the English 
custom and offer celery and cheese with the bis- 
cuit. If the men prefer to have their cigars in the 
smoking-room, the coffee must be served there 
also. 

If the dinner is given for some special purpose, 
such as to announce the approaching marriage of 
the host, some reference may be made to this, 
either by having something in the decorations of 
the table which will emphasize the fact, or else 
some special dish can be made to call attention 
to it. 

Possibly the ice-cream may be surrounded by white 
bride roses, or, if it is given for one who is about to go 
on a journey, the caterer's art may be called in to offer 
a steamboat cleverly arranged in ices and cream; Or, 
if the guests are fond of automobiling or golf or 
racing or cards, these things may be suggested in 
the sherbet-cases, which come in a thousand shapes 
suitable for just such occasions. One of the prettiest 
fancies, especially for a dinner announcing an en- 
gagement or approaching marriage, is a dainty little 
satin slipper with a gilded heel, holding an inner case 
for the ice. Here is a good menu: 



180 EASY ENTERTAINING 

Canape's of brown bread and caviare. 

Oysters with mignonette sauce. 

Neapolitan consomme'. 

Filets of fish with cucumber sauce. 

Saddle of mutton with currant jelly; glazed turnips; Bermuda 

potatoes. 

Basket of fruits with ice-cream. 

Hard biscuit, toasted. Brie cheese. Coffee. 

Use Boston brown bread for the canapes, and 
spread thinly with caviare after cutting out in cres- 
cents. Serve these on small plates set in the service 
plates before the oyster course. The mignonette 
sauce to be offered with the oysters is one commonly 
seen at men's clubs. To make it, take one pint of 
vinegar, one-fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, as much 
black pepper, a dash each of Worcestershire and 
Tabasco sauce, one bunch each of minced shallots and 
chives. Mix well; serve cold. 

For the soup make a strong clear consomme and 
add to it a tablespoonful of chopped macaroni well 
boiled, as much cold boiled ham cut into small bits, 
and three tablespoonfuls of fried mushrooms, also cut 
small. Serve hot crackers with this. For the filets, 
take any good fish, such as whitefish or halibut, and 
cut into strips two inches wide by four long; dip in 
crumbs and egg and fry in a basket in deep fat; 
season well with salt and a dash of lemon juice and 
serve on hot fish-plates, with a half lemon-shell 



EASY ENTERTAINING 181 

on each plate filled with cucumber sauce. To 
prepare this, chop enough cucumber to half fill a 
cup, add a half-teaspoonful each of salt, minced 
parsley, and minced onion, and a tablespoonful of 
tarragon vinegar. Or, if you prefer, make a stifE sauce 
tartare and put it in the lemon baskets. 

The saddle of mutton is a very fine but heavy piece 
of meat. It is the back of the sheep, and is to be 
served in a whole roast, carved on the table, unless, 
indeed, there are so many guests as to make this too 
long a process. Why this is the custom with this 
particular roast it would be difficult to say, unless it 
is because nothing shows to greater advantage the 
experienced carver than his handling of this cut. 
Turnips are the invariable accompaniment of this 
dish, and glazed they are very good. Cut six into 
balls and boil them tiQ tender; drain, place in a 
baking-dish, and pour over them a cup of clear stock 
seasoned with half a teaspoonful each of salt and 
pepper, a little Cayenne and nutmeg; bake half an 
hour, basting frequently, and then take from the 
dish, thicken the gravy in the pan with a tablespoon- 
ful of butter and one of flour, and when smooth 
and very hot pour over the turnips and serve at 
once. 

The dessert is a handsome basket of candied fruits, 
made on a foundation, and glazed by being brushed 



182 EASY ENTERTAINING 

over with strong syrup after it is done. It may be 
prepared at home over a wire basket, or purchased 
from the caterers. In the latter case it will be put to- 
gether without foundation, and may be served with 
the cream which fills it. However, that is not es- 
sential, and really the stickiness of the fruit makes it 
difficult to cut apart in serving, so that the home- 
made affair, which is equally pretty and very little 
trouble to make, does quite as well. The oranges are 
simply quartered, and fastened with tiny wire or 
thread to the heavy wires, or to a pasteboard founda- 
tion. The cream for the filUng may be a very rich one 
full of candied fruits and nuts. 
Another dinner might be: 

Oysters. 

Consomme printaniere. 

Baked fish with cheese. 

Roast venison or turkey, currant jelly; stufifed Bermuda onions; 

potatoes. 

Apple and mint salad. 

French charlotte-russe. 

Hard biscuit; celery farci; coffee. 

The soup here is a strong consomme, with tiny 
stars, circles, and crescents cut with tin cutters from 
thin slices of carrots, turnips, and any well-colored 
spring vegetables. 

The fish should be a fine large one, perhaps a blue- 
fish or a bass or a whitefish, stuffed and baked in the 



EASY ENTERTAINING 183 

oven and basted frequently with a sauce made by 
adding to two cups of cream two tablespoonfuls of 
Parmesan cheese and one of melted butter, with a 
teaspoonful of chopped parsley, and salt to taste. 
The game should be a fine haunch or a large turkey 
stuffed with chestnuts or oysters. The onions served 
with it are a favorite dish with many men. The large, 
fine and comparatively odorless Bermuda vegetable is 
to be selected, and peeled; then a stuffing is made 
exactly as for tomatoes, with plenty of butter, pepper, 
and salt, and to this is added the centre of the onions, 
chopped fine. Bake in a covered dish till tender, 
basting well with mixed water and butter, and brown 
during the last half-hour. 

For the salad, pare, core, and slice thin six tart 
apples crosswise, and lay them in circles on the plates 
on white leaves of lettuce, the edges of the slices 
lapping; sprinkle with a large teaspoonful of finely 
chopped mint and pour French dressing over all. 
For the dessert try French charlotte-russe. Beat 
well a small quart of stiff cream and stir into it a 
tablespoonful each of citron, candied orange peel, 
candied cherries, blanched and chopped almonds, 
and two tablespoonfuls of chopped English walnuts, 
raisins, and marrons, with six marshmallows, also 
chopped. Season the cream with a little bitter 
almond, vanilla, and brandy. 



184 EASY ENTERTAINING 

For a final course serve stalks of white celery with 
Brie cheese pressed down into each one, lengthwise, 
and toasted water-crackers and coffee. This last at 
the table or in the smoking-room. 



AUTUMN MENUS FOR FOUR WEEKS 



Sunday 

BBEAKFAST 

Fruit. 

Scrambled eggs; rolls; coffee. 

Fairy waffles and honey. 

DINNER 

Fore quarter of lamb, stuffed; cur- 
rant jelly; mashed sweet-potatoes; 
baked tomatoes. 
Lettuce and cauliflower salad. 
Peach ice-cream ; cake. 
Coffee. 

SUPPER 

Finnan-haddie Newburg in chafing- 
dish; sandwiches; olives; coffee. 
Stewed pears and whipped cream; 
cake. 

Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Grapes. 

Broiled dried beef; potato cakes; 

buttered toast; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Cold baked beans and sliced to- 
matoes, with mayonnaise. 
Sliced peaches and cream ; cake; tea. 

DINNER 

Meat pie (of lamb); stuffed baked 

eggplant; creamed carrots. 

Watercress and hard-boiled egg salad. 

Fig compote; coffee. 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Purple and yellow plums. 

Boiled eggs; fried sweet-potatoes; 

corn muffins; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Com fritters; baked potatoes; bis- 
cuits; tea. 
White-grape and cream-cheese salad. 



DINNER 

Cream of pea soup. 

Veal pot-pie with dumplings; stuffed 

baked red peppers; mashed potato. 

Peach fritters, hard sauce. 

Coffee. 



BREAKFAST 

Grapes and pears. 
Fried pan-fish; French-fried po- 
tatoes; corn gems; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Spaghetti and tomato, baked; rolls; 

tea. 

Plum tartlets. 

DINNER 

Cream of corn soup. 

Planked steak with diced vegetables; 

baked sweet-potatoes. 

Glorified rice pudding. 

Coffee. 



Thursday 

BREAKFAST 

Sliced peaches and cream. 

Poached eggs on toast rounds; hot 

rolls; coffee. 

Orange marmalade. 

LUNCHEON 

Steak croquettes (from Wednesday) 

with brown sauce; muflfins; tea. 

Baked apples and cream. 



DINNER 

White-bean soup. 

Strips of veal, breaded; stuffed 

baked tomatoes; potatoes. 

Peach dumplings. 

Coffee. 



185 



186 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Grapes. 

Fried scallops; hashed potatoes; 

biscuits; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Canned salmon with white sauce and 

capers; rolls; tea. 

Pears. 

DINNER 

Slices of cod, steamed, with oyster 

sauce; potatoes; eggplant. 

Lettuce and tomato salad. 

Cabinet pudding, fruit sauce. 

Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal with cream. 

Codfish (from Friday) in croquettes; 

English muffins, toasted; coffee. 

Orange marmalade. 

LUNCHEON 

Rice scalloped with tomatoes; rusk; 

tea. 
Lady-fingers with chocolate sauce. 

DINNER 

Clear soup with croutons. 

Beef stew with tomatoes and green 

peppers, baked cauliflower; potatoes. 

Cocoanut custard. 

Coffee. 



Sunday 

BREAKFAST 

Baked pears. 
Brown hash (of beef stew) ; French- 
fried potatoes; pop-overs; coffee. 

DINNER 

Black-bean soup. 
Baked ham; creamed corn; sweet- 
potatoes. 
Lettuce and tomato salad. 
Peach Bavarian cream. 
Coffee. 

SUPPER 

Fried oysters; sandwiches; pickles; 

coffee. 
Green peppers stuffed with string- 
bean salad. 
Preserved pears; cake. 



Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Baked apples and cream. 

Bacon and mushrooms; fried toast; 

coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Cold sliced ham; potato cakes; rolls; 

tea. 

Grapes and cake. 

DINNER 

Cream of carrot soup. 
Baked veal loaf with brown sauce; 

scalloped tomatoes; potatoes. 

Deep apple tart with cream and 

cheese. 

Coffee. 

Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Grapes and plums. 

Ham omelette (from Sunday) ; corn 

bread; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Sliced veal loaf; sweet-potato puff. 
Cream cakes. 

DINNER 

Hamburg steak k la porterhouse with 
minced vegetables; baked sweet- 
potatoes. 
Lettuce and cucumber salad; cream- 
cheese balls. 
Cornstarch pudding with preserved 
ginger and cream. 
Coffee. 

Wednesday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal and cream. 

Broibd bacon; creamed potatoes; 

buttered strips of toast; coffee. 

Orange marmalade. 

LUNCHEON 

Hamburg steak, in slices, with tomato 
sauce; rolls; tea. , 
Plum jam and cake. 

DINNER (company) 

Clams on half-shell. 

Cream of tomato soup. 

Scallops on skewers. 

Panned guinea-fowl; string-beans; 

caramel sweet-potato; currant jelly. 

Escarole salad with chopped peppers. 

Peach ice-cream with fresh peaches; 

cakes. 

Coffee. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



187 



Thursday 

BBEAKPAST 

Fruit. 
Eggs on rounds of Boston brown- 
bread toast; French-fried potatoes; 

coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Hashed guinea-fowl (from Wednes- 
day) ; biscuits ; tea. 
Sliced peaches and cakes. 



Vegetable soup. 

Breaded veal cutlet; baked potatoes; 

creamed onions and cheese, baked. 

Pineapple fritters. 

Coffee. 



Friday 

BHEAKPAST 

Pears. 
Creamed finnan-haddie; toasted muf- 
fins; coffee. 
Currant bread. 

LUNCHEON 

Salmon souffle with creamed pease; 
biscuits; tea. 
Peach tartlets. 

DINNEB 

Oyster soup. 
Sliced halibut, broiled, 

creamed cucumbers 

Chocolate bread-pudding. 

Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Grapes. 

Spanish omelette; hashed browned 

potatoes; corn gems; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Fish croquettes (from Friday) with 

white sauce; string-beans; tea. 

Lettuce and tomato salad. 

Cake. 



Sunday 

BEEAKFAST 

Fruit. 

Broiled mushrooms on toast; muffins; 

coSee. 

Toast strips and honey. 

DINNER 

Cream of lettuce soup. 

Chicken pie; sweet-potatoes; spiced 

peaches; string-beans. 

Cress salad. 

Pistachio ice-cream; cakes. 

Coffee. 

SUPPER 

Chicken reheated with oysters in 
chafing-dish (from dinner); biscuits; 

coffee. 
Peach short-cake and whipped cream. 

Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 

Shirred eggs; potato cakes; rolls; 

coffee . 

LUNCHEON 

Potato and olive salad with mayon- 
naise; sandwiches; olives. 
Chocolate and whipped cream ; cake. 

DINNER 

Cream of celery soup. 

Breast of lamb, roasted; cauliflower; 

potatoes. 

Orange pudding. 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Baked apples and cream. 

Liver and bacon on skewers; hashed 

potatoes; toast; coffee. 

LUNCHEON (company). 

Cream of clam soup. 
Creamed scallops in individual dishes. 
Fried sweetbreads; creamed sweet- 
potatoes in cases; pease; tea. 
Celery and nut salad with mayon- 
naise. 
Marron ice-cream ; cakes. 



DINNER 

Chops ; baked succotash ; sweet- 
potatoes. 
Celery and nut salad. 
Prune jelly and whipped cream. 
Coffee. 



Clear soup with tapioca (from lamb 

bones). 

Veal chops; stuffed baked tomatoes; 

rice croquettes. 

Baked caramel custards; cakes. 

Coffee. 



188 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



Wednesday 

BREAKFAST 

Baked apples and cream. 

Tomato omelette; hashed potatoes; 

Graham muflSns; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Rice croquettes with cheese sauce; 

pickles; tea. 

Grapes. 

DINNER 

Cream of Lima-bean soup. 
Veal cutlet, breaded; mashed sweet- 
potatoes; corn fritters. 
Deep plum tart. 
Coffee. 



Thursday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal and cream. 
Clam fritters; buttered toast; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Veal soufflS; baking-powder biscuits; 



Stewed apples. 



Stewed chicken; rice balls; spinach. 

Lettuce and sliced-tomato salad. 

Peach pudding. 

Coffee. 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Creamed eggs; fried sweet-potatoes; 
fruit muffins; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Fried scallops; baked potatoes; tea. 
Plums and pears. 



Onion soup, 
bluefish; baked tomatoes; 



potatoes. 

Pear compote. 

Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 
Fried eggplant; hashed brown po- 
tatoes; pop-overs; coffee. 



LUNCHEON 

Creamed bluefish ; chopped potatoes; 

tea. 

Baked pears. 

DINNER 

Hamburg steak with minced vege- 
tables; farina croquettes; spiced 
apples. 
Rice and raisin pudding. 
Coffee. 



Sunday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 

Parsley omelette; cream toast; 

coffee. 

DINNER 

Roast chicken; caramel sweet- 
potatoes; baked corn. 
Lettuce and white-grape salad. 
Spanish cream. 
Coffee. 

SUPPER 

Creamed chicken and green peppers; 

sandwiches; coffee. 

Lettuce and hard-boiled eggs with 

mayonnaise. 

SUced peaches and cream; cake. 



Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal and cream. 

Bacon and fried apples; toast; 

coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Milk toast with grated cheese; tea. 
Fruit and cake. 

DINNER 

Chicken and rice soup. 
Lamb pot-pie; string-beans; pota- 
toes. 
Apple pie; cheese. 
Coffee. 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Pears. 
Com fritters; muffins; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Baked stuffed tomatoes; chipped 

potatoes; tea. 

Baked apples and cream. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



189 



DINNEK 

Cream of lettuce soup. 
Meat pie (lamb) ; scalloped toma- 
toes; sweet-potatoes. 
Grapes and peaches. 
Coffee. 



Wednesday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal. 

Baked eggs in cream; fruit muffins; 

coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Macaroni and tomatoes; tea. 
Grapes. 

DINNER 

Vegetable soup. 

Beef strips, stewed in casserole with 

tomato; baked potatoes; minced 

carrots. 

Chocolate blanc-mange. 

Coffee. 



Thursday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 
Codfish surprise; cream toast; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Fried oysters; sandwiches; pickles. 
Baked pears and cookies. 

DINNER 

Beef soup (stew). 

Baked liver; rice croquettes; Lima 

beans. 

Caramel custards. 

Coffee. 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal and cream. 

Scrambled eggs ; corn muffins. 

Coffee. 



LUNCHEON 

Deviled sardines on toast; chopped 
brown potatoes; tea. 

Stuffed cucumber salad; cream 
cheese and crackers. 

DINNER 

Stuffed baked wbitefish; cucumber 

pur6e; mashed potatoes. 

Lettuce and tomato salad. 

Bread and orange marmalade 

pudding. 

Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Fruit. 

Smoked salmon, creamed; creamed 

potatoes; muffins; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Stuffed baked red peppers; creamed 

sweet-potatoes; tea. 

Lady-fingers and whipped cream. 

DINNER 

Scalloped whitefish ; baked tomatoes; 

potatoes. 

Lettuce salad. 

Peach shortcake and cream. 

Coffee. 



AFTERNOON TEA 

A TEA may be one of the most delightful and 
informal affairs in the whole social round, or 
it may be an unmitigated bore. It all de- 
pends upon the hostess. If she is a wise woman she 
will limit her guests to the number her house can 
accommodate with ease, and have her hours long 
enough to avoid all coming at the same time; she 
will have some regard to making her guests acquainted 
if they have not already met; and she will furnish 
forth her table so invitingly that those who come 
perfunctorily will remain to chat over the teacups, 
and pay her the compliment of forgetting the time of 
day. 

On a cold winter's afternoon a bright open fire is 
one of the things to have, if possible, and near enough 
to it to look cozy should stand the prettiest of tea 
tables; not one of the small affairs which will hold 
only a half-dozen cups, but a good-sized one capable 
of practical service. In the centre should be a bowl 
of flowers, and about it two candelabra or several 
190 



EASY ENTERTAINING 191 

individual candlesticks with or without shades. 
Scattered between will be room for plates of sand- 
wiches, cakes, bonbons, and salted nuts or crys- 
tallized fruits, while at one side the tea or coffee 
urn may stand, or the chocolate-pot, and at the other 
side may be a large punch-bowl of lemonade or tea 
punch. Of course the quantity and variety of the 
refreshments must depend on the size of the gathering. 
If only a dozen or two are invited, then the simpler 
things are the better, but if the so-called " tea " is 
really a function, then something more elaborate is in 
keeping. If one plans to have tea, chocolate, and 
lemonade for beverages, she must consider how most 
easily she can handle them. Tea made with a kettle 
of boiling water and a tea-ball is all very well for 
three or four persons, but one cannot serve more 
without a delay while the water slowly comes to the 
boiUng-point. The urn is the best thing to use for a 
number. Have the tea made in the kitchen and 
carefully strained; then put it in the urn and light 
the lamp, and it will keep fresh for hours. Have 
cream, sugar, and sliced lemons on the table, and, if 
you fancy a novelty, try putting two cloves in each 
cup and pouring the hot tea upon them, removing 
them before passing the cup. Coffee and bouillon 
should be served from an urn, and the cups used for 
either of these, and for tea as well, should be the 



192 EASY ENTERTAINING 

small flaring teacups, not after-dinner coffee-cups. 
If you are so fortunate as to own a Russian samovar, 
and it certainly gives the best tea in the world, do 
not use cups at all, but tall, slender glasses, passed 
on small plates, and put a slice of lemon in each 



Some chocolate-pots are of an odd shape, resembling 
vases or urns, and the cups which are used with them 
do not have the straight sides they formerly had, but 
flare at the top somewhat as the teacups do. Of course 
when chocolate is offered at a tea, whipped cream is 
put on it when it is served. 

When the lemonade is made, shredded oranges, 
bananas, and pineapple may be used, but it is to be 
strained before it is put in the bowl, and a few mara- 
schino or preserved cherries added. A small ladle is 
used for filling the glass cups which invariably ac- 
company a punch-bowl. Tea punch is made by using 
hot tea instead of water for lemonade, adding the 
fruits as before, but putting it, when ice-cold, into a 
glass pitcher instead of a bowl, and placing a large 
bunch of sugared mint in the mouth. Cafe frappe is 
strong coffee, well sweetened, and with a good deal 
of cream which is frozen to the consistency of wet 
snow. It is served from the bowl in glasses. 

The sandwiches offered at teas are of infinite 
variety; sometimes they are filled with a salad mix- 



EASY ENTERTAINING 193 

ture, sometimes with a sweet, and often with some 
sort of nuts with cream or fruit. They are cut in 
circles or triangles or hearts, or else rolled. To make 
salad sandwiches, chop and pound chicken or turkey 
to a paste, and mix with mayonnaise, or spread crisp 
lettuce leaves with mayonnaise and put between the 
slices. Olives, chopped very fine, make an excellent 
salad sandwich, either plain or, like the others, with a 
dressing. Delicious sandwiches are made by using the 
very thinnest possible shavings of lemon, and cu- 
cumbers with French dressing are also appetizing, 
provided not too much of the rather strongly flavored 
vegetable is used. 

Sweet sandwiches are made of orange marmalade, 
or pear conserve, which is a rich jam with considerable 
ginger cooked in it. Jelly is sometimes used, but it 
is not sufficiently stiff to be practical; jam or mar- 
malade is far better. Peach or apricot is most delicate ; 
red raspberry is occasionally seen, but the seeds are 
decidedly objectionable. Besides these two kinds of 
sandwiches there are many prepared with nuts which 
are also very nice. Boston brown bread two days 
old, cut very thin, spread first with a little butter and 
then with cream cheese mixed with chopped peanuts, 
is one of the best of sandwiches, but care must be 
taken not to have the bread damp or soggy. Whole- 
wheat bread may be prepared with this same filling. 



194 EASY ENTERTAINING 

Raisins and chopped Engl sh walnuts are nice, and so 
are chopped dates and almonds together. Often 
whipped cream is used with these nut fillings, to 
bind them. 

The cake served at afternoon tea should always 
be of the lighter sort. It is never wise to offer any 
sort of layer or fruit cake or anything which is sticky. 
There are all kinds of wafers and nut strips which are 
easily prepared at home which are delicious, and 
certainly far more tempting than the ordinary things 
bought from the baker. Strips of puff paste may be 
covered with chopped almonds mixed with the sUghtly 
beaten white of one egg, and just browned in the 
oven; lady-fingers may be rolled in boiled frosting 
and allowed to dry; saltines may be covered with 
sweet, melted chocolate, with a very little butter 
mixed in; or little cakes may be made in small baldng- 
dishes, the smaller the better, and rolled in boiled 
icing colored and flavored with orange, rose, lemon, or 
pistache, and these may be ornamented, if desired, 
with tiny strips of angelica, or bits of candied cherries 
or nuts cut in lengths. Ice-cream sandwiches are 
good, but many are afraid to attempt them, as they 
seem difficult to manage; they are very simple, on the 
contrary. Get white ice-cream in bricks, as firmly 
packed as possible, and slice it on a marble slab, — 
an old-fashioned table or bureau top is just the thing; 



EASY ENTERTAINING 195 

then with a round biscuit-cutter cut out circles from 
the slices, and put them between macaroons. Or cut 
the slices in strips of the right size to fit between 
two sugar wafers. Serve these sandwiches on small 
plates with forks. 

The bonbons used at afternoon teas may be all 
chocolates, or else peppermints or creams, matching 
the flowers in color, or they may be delicious con- 
fections in paper cases, such as marrons glaces or 
strips of orange and lemon, candied, but in any case 
they should be something dainty, and, if possible, 
something not seen on every table. If salted nuts are 
used, try having them pecans instead of almonds, and 
mix a few green pistache nuts with them; the contrast 
is pretty, and almonds have been used so long as to be 
tiresome. 

Sometimes an afternoon tea is really an elaborate 
reception; in that case it is almost essential to have a 
caterer, for the decorations and refreshments, are too 
troublesome for the ordinary hostess to prepare. 
There must be flowers and lights in profusion, a table 
loaded with delicacies, and many waiters to serve. 
There is usually a first course of bouillon, followed by 
something in the way of shell-fish, perhaps creamed 
oysters or lobster, with sandwiches; after that is a 
salad, chicken, or shrimp, and then ices in forms, 
fancy cakes, bonbons, and coffee, lemonade, or punch. 



196 EASY ENTERTAINING 

The table has a centrepiece of roses and ferns, candles 
in silver candelabra, set pieces of spun sugar with 
fruits and sweets, sometimes arrangements of whipped 
cream in colored sugar shapes. 



BUFFET LUNCHEONS AND SUPPERS 

AT many large receptions, or at weddings, either 
at noon or in the evening, it is quite usual to 
have no table spread for the refreshments, but 
to have things served whenever any one wishes, from 
a buffet. Of course there may be a time when most 
of the guests will sit down about the dining-room, but 
others may stand about the halls and in the other 
rooms and still be served. 

It is necessary, in order to have things hot for this 
prolonged time, to use large chafing-dishes and dishes 
for hot water, as well as urns for bouillon and coffee, 
but only one of a kind need be in evidence; the rest 
may be kept ready in the butler's pantry, or on a 
side-table. On the buffet proper may be only one or 
two hot dishes, and perhaps two urns, with plates, 
napkins, forks, sandwiches, and salads. The ices, 
cakes, and other things needed may be brought in at 
the moment they are called for. The soiled dishes 
and napkins must be carried out from the room as 
soon as they are used, and not put on the buffet or 
side- table. 

197 



198 EASY ENTERTAINING 

A buffet luncheon, coming at midday, is necessarily 
more of a meal than is an evening supper, with dinner 
only a few hours before. Still, the dishes served are 
alike, the difference being that there is usually one 
extra course served at a luncheon. At either, the first 
course is beef or chicken bouillon, served in two- 
handled cups, or else in flat teacups; with this tiny 
unbuttered rolls are passed; or small grisini, or bread 
sticks. The next course may be creamed oysters or 
creamed lobster or crab meat, or lobster or crabs a la 
Newburg. Oysters are now usually served in fontage 
cups, or, as they are often called, Swedish timbale 
cases; they are easily made and less heavy than pate 
cases of pastry. 

Croquettes are always in place at a buffet meal, 
but for such an occasion they are made much smaller 
than for ordinary use; perhaps only one- third as 
large. They may be made of chicken or sweetbreads, 
or they may be of lobster moulded into chop or cutlet 
shape. With either chicken or sweetbreads French 
pease are often served. Timbales are rather more 
easily made at home than croquettes are, and they are 
always a good choice for a hot dish. This is a rule for 
twenty: Take the meat from a four-pound chicken 
without cooking and chop it; put it twice through the 
chopper and then mix the unbeaten white of an egg 
with it. Whip a pint of cream, season it with Cayenne 



EASY ENTERTAINING 199 

and salt and gradually beat in the chicken; last of 
all fold in the beaten whites of eight eggs. Butter 
small timbale moulds and put a star of truffle in the 
bottom of each if you wish; fill half full of the mixture 
and arrange the moulds in a pan of hot water which 
comes as far up as the mixture in the moulds. Bake 
fifteen minutes and turn out, with a small spoonful of 
cream sauce by each. 

Often sweetbreads with or without mushrooms 
mixed with them are served directly after the bouiUon, 
with perhaps a croquette, and the salad comes next. 

This makes rather a light meal for luncheon, but 
is a good plan for supper. For something heavier 
deviled crabs served in their shells or crab meat a la 
Newburg is always acceptable. 

For a cold entree one can have a choice of several 
things. Chicken mousse served in slices from a large 
mould is exceedingly deUcate. Take a cup of cold 
boiled chicken, add a tablespoonful of pate de foie 
gras and one of sherry; beat the yolks of two eggs, 
pour over them a cup of hot chicken stock, add the 
meat, and cook one minute. When cold beat in a cup 
of whipped cream, a tablespoonful of gelatine dis- 
solved in cold water, and the beaten whites of three 
eggs. Mix, put into a buttered mould which has been 
wet, set on ice, and leave at least six hours. This 
will serve ten people. 



200 EASY ENTERTAINING 

A nice chicken jelly, sliced evenly and served with 
mayonnaise, is always an easy dish to prepare for a 
bufifet meal; it is made by merely simmering down a 
chicken till it drops from the bones, and then ar- 
ranging the meat in a mould and pouring the strained 
and seasoned stock over. It must stand on ice till it 
is very firm. This is good served with either mayon- 
naise or sauce tartare. 

Still another cold dish which is often seen on a 
buffet is a large, fine salmon, boiled and served whole, 
decorated with tiny crabs fastened along the back 
with little silver skewers.. This is cut when needed, 
and sauce tartare is passed with it 

Sandwiches always accompany the hot course, and 
it is best to have more than one variety, though two 
plates are enough to have at one time on the buffet; 
these may be replenished when necessary from the 
refrigerator where the rest must be kept. They may 
be made of several things. Olives, chopped fine, 
mixed with a very little mayonnaise and spread on 
thin bread and butter are very appetizing. A delicate 
cheese sandwich is sometimes served with lobster, or 
a tiny thin brown-bread-and-butter sandwich with 
oysters in any shape. A mixture of cream cheese and 
pimentoes spread on white bread is very good with 
any hot dish made of chicken. Of course tongue and 
ham sandwiches are always the staples, and to have 



EASY ENTERTAINING 201 

them in perfection they should be prepared carefully 
at home. Put the meat twice through the meat- 
chopper till it is smooth paste; season it with dry 
mustard and Cayenne, and add half its bulk in butter. 
Mix, put on the fire till blended, press into a mould, 
and when needed spread directly on the unbuttered 
bread. These sandwiches should be cut in triangles. 
Others may be made by chopping watercress and 
spreading it on buttered bread, rolling into long 
shapes, and putting a sprig of cress into each end of 
the sandwich. Lettuce spread on bread with either 
French dressing or mayonnaise is also rolled, and 
very nice sandwiches to be cut into fancy shapes may 
be made by spreading bread with chicken salad put 
through the meat-chopper until it is a paste. 

Salads for a buffet luncheon or supper are always 
of a heavy sort, either lobster or shrimp, chicken or 
sweetbread. A good way to handle them is to make 
them with a thick mayonnaise, and after mixing them 
well press them into round or oval dishes and set them 
on the ice till they are needed. Then they may be 
turned out into firm mounds on platters and masked 
with more mayonnaise, and decorated for serving. 
Chicken salad usually has quarters of hard-boiled 
egg, lettuce hearts, and stoned olives about it; lobster 
has the small claws on the top and sides, and sweet- 
bread has lettuce hearts alone. Sometimes slices of 



202 EASY ENTERTAINING 

a clear aspic jelly with stars or other bits of vegetables 
set in it are served with the salad, and plain finger- 
rolls, or bread-and-butter sandwiches are always 
passed. The green sandwiches are used with the hot 
courses alone. 

The sweets served at a luncheon or breakfast 
of this kind may be either elaborate or simple, as the 
hostess prefers. Sometimes there are fancy shapes of 
whipped cream surrounded by rolled gauffres, or 
delicate wafers, and with these a wine jelly is passed, 
as alone the cream is insipid. Besides there may be 
forms made of whipped cream and candied fruits, or 
other similar combinations. These, however, are 
designed really to decorate a table with, and are not 
quite in keeping with a buffet luncheon or supper. 

Ices are served in forms, unless the occasion is 
very informal, when a melon mould may be used, or 
a brick. Or meringue shells filled with ice-cream are 
in good taste. 

There are lovely shapes in ices, especially suitable 
for weddings or large receptions; roses, white and 
pink, or lilies moulded in white and green, or large 
flat daisies in white and yellow; these may be served 
on spun sugar. Or there are large flowers of sugar 
candy, wonderfully real, each open to hold a spoonful 
of ice-cream or ice. Fruit forms may be served in 
candy baskets; a basketful of ice-cream peaches is 



EASY ENTERTAINING 203 

always beautiful, and so is a basket of fruits artistic- 
ally mixed with fresh foliage. These are better than 
a variety of small figures or vegetable shapes. 

Little cakes are to be served with ices, not slices 
from large cakes. The hostess should be careful to 
see that none of the squares of jelly-cake covered with 
colored icing which caterers affect find their way in; 
there are plenty of others nowadays of far daintier 
quality to be had for the seeking; many of the fine 
bakeries as well as confectioneries make a specialty 
of tiny French and Italian varieties. There are also 
delicious French bonbons to serve with ices ; marrons, 
candied almond paste, and crystallized fruits. 

The last course at a luncheon or supper served 
from the buffet is always coffee in small cups, either 
with or without cream. 



MID -WINTER LUNCHEONS 

FOR a simple little luncheon-party where every- 
thing is prepared at home the hostess may 
have a first course of either soup or fruit, 
whichever she prefers. In winter, however, grape- 
fruit is usually plentiful and inexpensive, and two will 
serve five persons or more, so that it may be planned 
for at one luncheon, at least. This is a simple but 
attractive menu: 

Grapefruit. 

Cream of celery soup in cups. 

Salmon croquettes and pease. 

Creamed chicken in rice border, with cheese; hot rolls; tea or 

chocolate. 

White-grape and pecan salad; cream-cheese balls; wafers. 

Walnut ice-cream in cakes. 

Scoop out the grapefruit pulp and put it into some 
sort of glasses, either the tall ones holding cups, 
which come on purpose, or in plain, flaring glasses 
shaped like those for champagne, or in glass cups. 
Sweeten it with a little sugar-and-water syrup 
poured over the fruit while rather warm, and when 
it is chilled later on and put into glasses add a very 

204 



EASY ENTERTAINING 205 

little sherry or cordial to flavor it. If you prefer you 
can use half grapefruit and half orange pulp; the two 
colors look well together. 

For the soup get two or three heads of the short 
celery; split them into four pieces each and save the 
inside part to pass after the croquettes. Take the 
outside, the roots, and leaves, and stew them till 
they are very soft; then rub through a sieve or 
colander and add to a quart of hot milk; simmer a 
moment, season well, thicken with a level tablespoon- 
ful of butter melted and rubbed smooth with as much 
flour; add to the soup, and when it has all grown 
smooth like cream, strain and serve in hot cups; a 
very little whipped cream on top of each is nice. 

For the croquettes, get a can of salmon, remove 
all skin, bones, and fat, and drain it well. Mash it, 
season with salt and a little Cayenne and mix with it; 
measure, and to two cups of the fish put one small cup 
of white sauce, made with two tables poonfuls of 
flour and one of butter and a small cup of hot milk. 
Beat well and spread out to grow cold and stiff. 
When you are ready to fry them, cut off pieces of the 
mixture about two inches long and one wide, and roll 
each under your hand till it is smooth, and then square 
the ends; dip each first into sifted crumbs, then into 
the half-beaten yolk of an egg mixed with a table- 
spoonful of cold water; then into the crumbs again, 



206 EASY ENTERTAINING 

and when the outer covering is dry put two at a time 
into the wire basket and fry in deep fat; drain on 
white paper in the oven, and serve on a napkin laid 
on a platter, with lemon sUces and parsley. Drain 
and heat the pease with a little salt and pepper, and 
pile them around the croquettes. 

For the main course, cut up any nice cold chicken, 
either roasted or stewed, or, if more convenient, take 
the best brand of canned chicken; cream it, using as 
rich milk as possible, or even thin cream, and fill a 
border of boiled rice. This can be prepared a day in 
advance, and merely reheated at luncheon-time. The 
easiest way to make it is to press it while soft and hot 
into a tin ring or border mould; if one does not 
happen to have this very convenient utensil it can 
be pressed into a round tin pan four inches deep, and 
when it is firm and cold the centre can be cut out, 
leaving a ring. When the chicken is in, cover the top 
with a good layer of grated cheese and return it to the 
oven to brown. This makes a substantial and yet 
delicate dish, and potatoes are not needed with it, 
because of the rice which takes their place. 

For the salad, get a small white head of lettuce and 
half a pound or more of Malaga grapes. Cut a little 
hole with a tiny knife in one side of each grape and 
take out the seeds; press into their place a bit of 
pecan-nut, and when all are ready pile them in the 











m 




sp 




a4'*/ 


f 


H 


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EASY ENTERTAINING 207 

middle of the lettuce on a round, flat glass dish and 
pour over them three tablespoonfuls of olive-oil well 
mixed with one of lemon juice, or a little less of 
vinegar, with salt and a very little Cayenne. Serve 
cream cheese with this dish, either rolled in balls or 
in the square shape in which it comes. 

For dessert, make a quart of rich vanilla ice-cream, 
and when it is firm enough to remove the dasher stir 
in a cup of chopped English walnuts and let it stand 
till needed, so that it may ripen. Have ready some 
simple cake, baked in little round tins — these may 
be prepared the day before, — and scoop out the 
middle of each one and heap with the cream. This 
makes a pretty and novel sweet to close the luncheon. 
Coffee may be passed later, unless tea or chocolate 
has been served with the main course; if either has 
been, the coffee will not be needed. 

A second luncheon may begin with the soup 
course: 

Cream of green-pea soup in cups. 

Fried oysters with sauce tartare. 

French chops with latticed potatoes; celery au gratin; hot rolls; 

currant jelly. 

Grapefruit or orange salad, on lettuce 

Ginger ice-cream in glasses; little cakes. 

Coffee. 

The soup may easily be made by simmering a 
small can of drained pease in rich milk, with a small 
bit of onion, then pressing all through a sieve, sea- 



208 EASY ENTERTAINING 

soning well, and very slightly thickening; the pease 
will really make the soup thick enough for most 
tastes without adding the usual flour and butter. 
Serve as the soup course in the previous luncheon, 
with a little cream on top, and be sure that the cups 
are reaUy hot. 

Choose large oysters for frying, and dip each one 
into sifted crumbs, then into beaten egg, then into 
crumbs again, and, when dry, fry them in the wire 
basket. Arrange them on a napkin on a platter in 
regular rows, slightly overlapping them, and at inter- 
vals set halved lemons with the inside scooped out 
and sauce tartare put in; there may be a small half- 
lemon for each person, or large lemons may be chosen, 
in which case four half-lemons will hold enough for 
eight persons. The sauce is merely mayonnaise, with 
a tablespoonful of finely chopped pickle, onion, 
parsley, and capers to a cupful. If it is too much 
trouble to prepare the lemons, put the sauce into a 
small bowl and pass it after serving the oysters. 

For the main course, have little French chops, and 
after broiling them surround them with latticed pota- 
toes, made with the little tin utensil which comes on 
purpose and is very easy to use. It is a pleasant change 
to use sweet instead of white potatoes. Instead of 
chops you can have panned chicken, if you prefer. 

The celery is to be stewed, creamed, and put into 



EASY ENTERTAINING 209 

a baking-dish with crumbs and butter on top, and 
browned in the oven. 

For the salad, put grapefruit pulp on lettuce and 
cover with the same French dressing described before. 
Or, have orange salad: Cut the top and bottom layer 
off peeled seedless oranges and sHce each in four thick 
pieces; arrange on lettuce with an English walnut 
half on each sUce, and serve with either mayonnaise 
or French dressing. 

For the dessert, make a plain, rich cream as usual, 
but flavor strongly with ginger. The day before the 
luncheon get from the butcher a little bunch of mint 
leaves, wash and wipe each one dry, and boil a cup of 
sugar hard, with half a cup of water, for four minutes 
without stirring. Cool slightly and then dip the 
leaves into the S3rrup and draw each one over granu- 
lated sugar, on both sides; lay on oiled paper till dry. 
When the ginger ice-cream is in the glasses put two 
candied mint leaves on top of each glass; the combina- 
tion of flavors is very good. 

A third luncheon might have a first course of mixed 
fruits: 

Fruits in glasses. 

Clam bouillon with whipped cream; hot wafers. 

Eggs Newburg. 

Veal cutlets with chopped mushrooms; creamed potatoes; rolls; 

tea. 

Celery salad, cream cheese, wafers. 

Wine jelly in glasses with cream. 



210 EASY ENTERTAINING 

Put bits of orange, grapefruit, and banana into 
glasses after sweetening with syrup as before, and 
serve very cold. Stew the clams in their own juice 
for two minutes, then chop, strain, and add to rich 
hot milk; season with pepper only, slightly thicken, 
and serve with hot wafers. Omit the fish course 
because of the clams in the soup, and instead have 
eggs Newburg. Boil hard four or more, and cut 
them up into bits as large as the end of your finger. 
Heat a small cup of cream, add the beaten yolks of 
two eggs, salt, a little Cayenne, and a tablespoonful 
of sherry, and when it grows smooth and thick put 
in the eggs and heat; serve at once in individual 
dishes or in paper cases. 

Have a sUce or two of cutlet cut thin; cut this out 
in even circles and press with the potato-masher till 
they are as large as a slice of an orange; fry these 
quickly; have ready chopped half a can of mush- 
rooms or a quarter of a pound of fresh ones, and after 
seasoning both these and the cutlet cover the meat 
with them in a smooth, even layer. Serve very hot, 
with creamed potatoes, and if you wish another 
vegetable, a spoonful of pease. 

For a delicious celery salad, cut the celery up into 
inch pieces and split each one. Rub perfectly dry in 
a towel and set on ice. Prepare a small cup of English 
walnut meats and two heaping tables poonfuls of 



EASY ENTERTAINING 211 

chopped olives, with a cup of stiff mayonnaise. Just 
before serving mix all together well and put into a 
salad-bowl, and put celery leaves around the edge; 
do not use lettuce. Be careful not to put the mayon- 
naise on the celery till the last moment, and have 
the mayonnaise very thick. 

For a change from ice-cream, make a well-flavored 
wine jelly and set it in a pan so that it will be an inch 
thick. Cut this into cubes and pile them in flat 
glasses and top each with a very little whipped cream 
or a candied cherry. Or, omit the first course of 
fruit in this luncheon and put the orange and grape- 
fruit into the jelly, with a few cherries cut up fine; 
then cut the jelly into cubes as before. 



THE CHRISTMAS DINNER. NO. 1 

IF there were no other reason for using holly on 
the Christmas dinner-table, the long association 
connected with its use at this winter festival 
would surely commend it to us; but, besides the 
sentiment, there is also the fact that if skilfully ar- 
ranged there is nothing more decorative. The 
prettiest of dinner- tables may be laid thus: 

First, put on the white damask cloth, and in the 
centre lay a silver tray, if you have one; if not, take a 
round mirror; or dispense with either; around the 
edge of the s Iver or glass, or oti the cloth, put a wreath 
of the hoUy, not too heavy, because that would give 
a dark efifect, and in the middle put a glass or silver 
bowl with the holly branches bearing the greatest 
number of berries; wipe off all the leaves with a cloth 
on which is a very little oil, to make them reflect the 
lights. Then place candles in single sticks here and 
there, and use shades of red, or white edged with 
painted holly; last, put at each cover a good-sized 
plate holding a smaller one, and on this stand half a 
grapefruit in its shell, and arrange a small wreath of 
212 



EASY ENTERTAINING 213 

holly on the edge of the larger plate, letting the 
leaves conceal it and come up around the fruit. Put 
a cherry or two in the middle of each. The effect of 
the table is charming and most in keeping with the 
day. If one owns grapefruit glasses, these may be 
used instead of the fruit in shells, and the stems may 
be concealed by holly placed on the plate in a small 
loose pile. Use holly instead of parsley in decorating 
the dishes. 

This menu can be added to to make it more elabo- 
rate, if any one chooses; a course of game might 
follow the turkey, with a green salad accompanjning 
it; however, it must always be remembered that it is 
better to err on the side of simplicity rather than 
elaboration. 

Grapefruit with cherries (surrounded by holly). 

Cream of celery soup. 

Lobster patties. 

Roast tiu-key with oyster dressing; chestnut puree; caramel 

sweet-potatoes; pease; cranberry jam. 

Orange salad; cheese balls; wafers. 

Individual plxxm puddings (surrounded by holly). 

Coffee. 

If a little supper is to be served in the evening make 
the celery soup with the root and tops only to season 
it, and reserve the best parts to use then. Simmer 
with a pint of water, a slice of onion, salt, and pepper 
till all is a pulp; add a pint or more of rich milk. 



214 EASY ENTERTAINING 

thicken slightly, and strain. Add a little whipped 
cream if you wish. 

For the patties, instead of buying the shells at the 
baker's, press rich pie crust into ordinary scalloped 
tins, and bake; pick up and cream a large cupful of 
lobster meat and season highly with salt, Cayenne, 
and a dash of lemon juice, and after heating the shells 
heap them with the mixture. 

For the stuffing for the turkey get a quart of small 
oysters; drain them, saving the juice to use later on; 
put a heaping cup of soft bread crumbs into a hot 
frying-pan with a thick slice of onion, a heaping table- 
spoonful of butter, salt, and pepper; toss, and stir 
till the crumbs are golden brown; then put in the 
oysters, and heat till their edges curl; take out the 
slice of onion, wipe out the turkey, and stuff lightly, 
leaving room to swell; roast with the breast down in 
the pan, supporting the bird by cups put in the cor- 
ners of the pan, if you have no wire supporters made 
on purpose. 

For the puree, which goes so well with turkey, get 
a quart of French chestnuts or use two quarts of 
home-grown; boil them till the shells will come off; 
peel and put on again, and cook till tender; press 
through the puree sieve, season with salt and a little 
pepper; wet with a very little cream if it seems too 
dry, and serve piled loosely in a hot dish. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 215 

With chestnuts it is not necessary to have any 
kind of potato, since the two are rather ahke in con- 
sistency; however, if any are needed use caramel 
sweet-potatoes; boil and slice them, dip each piece in 
butter and then in sugar, and brown. Or, in place of 
these, have mashed white potatoes; with either pass 
giblet gravy. 

For a vegetable canned pease are good, since some- 
thing rather Ught is desirable; drain them, season 
well, and heat in a very little cream, but have them 
served dry, not at all wet. 

Instead of the usual cranberry sauce there is some- 
thing richer and much more delicious, which is 
easily made. Get a quart or more of cranberries, 
pick them over, and put them to cook in barely 
enough water to float them; when all the berries 
have broken, and the water is absorbed so that the 
whole is a thick mush, measure and add as much 
sugar, the pulp of three oranges, and a cup of raisins, 
with the grated peel of one orange; cook this down 
till it is thick and pour into a mould, or serve as a 
jam. 

For the salad have something cool and refreshing; 
if lettuce is obtainable choose that, and after arranging 
it in a dish cover first with French dressing and then 
with chopped almonds; pass with it a little dish of 
cream-cheese balls and some thin crackers; if lettuce 



216 EASY ENTERTAINING 

cannot be had, have instead some thickly sliced peeled 
seedless oranges; arrange them on a flat dish in 
overlapping circles, and pour French dressing over; 
this must be served very cold; have the crackers and 
cheese as before. 

The plum pudding may be made in small tin moulds 
and steamed; when ready to use take prunes which 
have been slightly moistened tUl the stones can be 
slipped out, and, after drying well, soak them in 
pure alcohol; press one into the top of each little 
pudding, and light it; it will make a very pretty 
flame which will last till the prune is entirely con- 
sumed. Arrange the puddings on a large flat dish, 
and put plenty of holly all around the edge. This is 
an excellent rule for the pudding; Mix a pint and a 
half of soft white bread crumbs with a pint of chopped 
suet, a pint of mixed stoned raisins and currants, half 
a pint of chopped figs, all slightly floured; half a 
cup of thinly sliced citron, a small cup of sugar, half 
a teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of grated nut- 
meg, five slightly beaten eggs, two tables poonfuls 
of flour mixed with half a cup of milk. Butter cups 
or tin moulds, half fill them, and steam three hours, 
or less if the moulds are small. Use a highly flavored 
hard sauce with the puddings. 

If an ice is desired for the close of the dinner, 
either in place of the plum pudding or following it, 



EASY ENTERTAINING 217 

here is something particularly nice: Make, first, a 
quart of rich, plain ice-cream; freeze soft, and stir 
in half a cup of powdered stale macaroons and half 
a cup of finely chopped hazel-nuts; mix well, scrape 
down from the sides of the freezer, and let it stand 
two hours. Meanwhile take a whole cup of hazel- 
nuts and blanch them by dropping first into hot 
water and then into cold; slip off the skins, and brown 
them in the oven by adding to them a half-beaten 
white of egg; dip out the cream, and pile it lightly 
in tall glasses, and put several of the browned nuts on 
top of each glassful. 

For another dinner which has the Christmas goose 
as the main dish, the course of fruit might be omitted 
and the soup come first: 

Oyster bisque. 

Creamed scallops in individual dishes. 

Roast goose; baked stuffed onions; sweet-potato puff; cranberry 

jeUy. 

Asparagus or lettuce salad; wafers. 

Mince pie and cheese. 

Marshmallow ice-cream. 

Coffee. 

For six persons a pint of oysters will be needed; 
drain them, heat the juice, and skim well, and then 
add the oysters; heat a quart of very rich milk, season 
with salt and pepper, and slightly thicken with a 
tablespoonful of butter rubbed smooth with as much 



218 EASY ENTERTAINING 

flour; strain, and keep hot; when the edges of the 
oysters curl take them up, chop them, and put 
through the press; add to the hot milk, bring just to 
the boiling-point, and serve immediately. 

For the Uttle fish course have creamed or deviled 
scallops. To cream them, drop them into boiUng 
water, cover, take off the fire, and let them stand three 
minutes. Drain well, and add to them barely enough 
thick white sauce to cover; season, and serve in small 
dishes. To devil them, after scalding them, drain, 
season with lemon juice, salt, Cayenne, and chopped 
parsley to taste; put a little butter in a hot frying- 
pan, and turn the scallops in this till they are slightly 
brown; serve in small dishes with a slice of lemon and 
a sprig of parsley on top of each dish. 

As a goose is too often tough, it is always best to 
parboil it the day before it will be needed; for a 
stuffing take a cup of soft bread crumbs, a cup of 
chopped apple, and a cup of minced celery; put all 
in a frjdng-pan with a heaping tablespoonful of butter, 
salt, pepper, and a teaspoonful of minced onion, and 
brown; wipe out the goose; fill two- thirds only with 
the stuffing, and roast with the breast downward; 
serve with a giblet sauce. 

For a vegetable have large onions, slightly cooked 
in water till they are soft; then the centres are re- 
moved, and a bread-cnmib stuffing put in; brown 



EASY ENTERTAINING 219 

these in the oven, and serve in the same dish. Have 
sweet-potatoes, boiled, mashed, and beaten up Ught 
with an egg, and browned in the oven. Instead of 
having cranberry jam or jelly with goose, have some 
spiced apples. To make these get large ones which 
are rather hard; peel and quarter them; make a 
thick syrup of a pint of cider vinegar and a heaping 
cup of sugar, boiled down with a tablespoonful of 
whole spices; put in the apple quarters, and cook till 
tender, but remove them before they break. 

Instead of the lettuce, which is always the best 
choice for dinner, you can have a nice celery salad. 
Dice it evenly and not too small, cook till transparent, 
and drain well; put on ice, and just before dinner 
add a cup of English walnuts and French dressing. 
Or, instead of either of these, have canned asparagus, 
drained and covered with French dressing, served 
ice cold. Do not have cheese with any of these salads 
if you are to have mince pie, because it must go with 
that. 

As to the pie, bake it in a large plate and slip it 
out on to a larger dish; warm it, put holly around, 
and just before serving cover quickly with piure 
alcohol, and set it on fire; all the alcohol will be con- 
sumed, but the flame is after the Christmas tradition. 

After this course, or instead of it, there may be a 
new kind of ice-cream which has a decidedly hoUday 



220 EASY ENTERTAINING 

look. To make this, get a pound of marshmallows; 
lay half of these candies away; chop the other half, 
and put them to soak for six hours in a bright red 
fruit juice; home-made cherry preserves often give 
this color, or you can buy ten cents' worth of any 
flavor at the soda-fountain or a drug-store. Make a 
quart of rich, plain white ice-cream, and freeze it, and 
when half stiff drain the mallows and fold them in; 
take the cream from the freezer and pack in a regular 
mould or a small pail with a tight cover, and bury 
two hours or more in ice and salt. Turn out on a 
cold platter and surround with the plain marsh- 
mallows, standing some also on top; on each one put 
a candied cherry, and around all put a little whipped 
cream; decorate profusely with holly. 

Or, instead of this cream have a caramel fig pudding, 
frozen. Melt a cup of sugar, and let it brown; put 
in a pint of thin cream, flavor with vanilla, cool, and 
freeze. When half-done add a half pound of figs 
chopped and wet with plain cream, and put the pud- 
ding into a melon or other mould and let it stand two 
hours or more in ice and salt. When time to serve it, 
turn out and put spoonfuls of stiff whipped cream 
all around. 

For the little supper in the evening take the celery 
and oyster juice left from the first dinner; mince the 
celery, heat it in the juice, and add diced turkey and a 



EASY ENTERTAINING 221 

little cream; season, and serve from the chafing-dish. 
Have olive sandwiches and coffee with this dish. 

Or dice the celery and dry it well, and add a pint of 
oysters cooked in their own juice, drained and chilled; 
mix with stiff mayonnaise, and serve with cold sliced 
turkey, with coffee and sandwiches. 

If goose is the main dinner dish, slice the breast 
and serve with celery and hard-boiled-egg salad made 
with mayonnaise; or have the cold goose and plain 
celery, sandwiches and hot chocolate, the latter with 
one marshmallow dropped into each cup. 

A charming little French sweet for Christmas, for 
either dinner or supper, is a new sort of cake. Make 
a plain sponge-cake in a thin layer in a biscuit- tin, 
and while warm cut it out in circles. Cut more of it 
into little squares, and with the scissors shape these 
into balls the size of marbles; roll each one in boiled 
sugar-and-water syrup cooked down to a thread and 
colored with fruit juice or vegetable paste,' so that 
they are pink or orange color; flavor the syrup well; 
while these are warm stick them on the sponge-cake 
rounds and top each with half a cherry; when cold 
fill the centres with whipped cream, either plain or 
frozen. Serve on a flat dish on a large paper doily or 
on individual plates, giving each one a fork and a 
spoon. 

If a simpler sweet is required, take halved pre- 



222 EASY ENTERTAINING 

served peaches and stand each one on a round of 
stale sponge-cake, the open side of the peach up; 
heap with whipped cream, plain or frozen, and put 
a cherry on top. The cream may easily be frozen by 
being first whipped and sweetened and then merely 
put into a pail, and put in the snow a few hours, or 
in a pan of ice and salt; the dish repays the extra 
trouble of freezing the cream. 



THE CHRISTMAS DINNER. NO. 2 

A DELIGHTFUL little decoration for a Christ- 
mas table, one suggestive of the quaint old 
English customs, is a small attractive Yule 
log. For this, get a piece of white birch wood and 
have it cut the length you choose; then draw on top 
of it an opening, perhaps eight inches long and* four 
across, or larger, if the log is good sized; cut the birch 
bark from this, and leave the wood beneath untouched. 
Get a quantity of the pretty artificial holly which 
looks exactly like the real except that the berries are 
more abundant and glossy, and tack it on the log; 
this is easily done by bending the wire stems, of the 
twigs across and putting in double tacks, and then 
straightening the holly in place; real holly can be 
used, but it is much more difficult to fasten on. When 
the log is finished it will look as though the holly were 
growing out of an opening, much like a small window- 
box. The white log is not at all unsuitable for a dainty 
table, and the idea of this is charming, as well as the 
appearance of the whole. If more green is needed, lay 



224 EASY ENTERTAINING 

a bed of holly on the table first and stand the log on 
that. 

Red candle shades, or those painted with holly 
will look well on the Christmas table, and there may 
be small bunches of holly at the covers on the napkins; 
it may be used on the roast turkey or goose instead of 
parsley, and also stuck in the pudding. 

If turkey was used as the main dish at Thanks- 
giving-time, the traditional goose may be chosen for 
this dinner. This menu is simply prepared: 

Grapefruit. 

Oyster bisque; celery. 

Salmon mousse with potato balls. 

Roast goose with spiced apples; creamed baked cauliflower; 

sweet-potatoes. 

Chicory and apple salad; cheese balls; wafers. 

Steamed fig pudding, hard sauce. 

Ices in glasses; cakes. 

Coffee. 

If grapefruit is used for the first course, take it 
from the shells and put it into the regular glasses if 
you own them, and serve with a cherry on top of 
each; or use any glasses you have, or the shells of 
the fruit; but in any case put a sprig of holly on each 
plate by the side of the fruit or glass, and have this 
course on the table at the beginning of the meal. 

For the soup, try this rule, since most soup of the 
kind is ruined by cooking the oysters: Scald twenty- 



EASY ENTERTAINING 225 

five medium-sized oysters in their own juice, and as 
soon as the edges curl take them off the fire, pour 
off the juice, and strain it. To this add a cup of 
water; melt a tablespoonful of butter, add as much 
flour, and rub smooth; add slowly a cup of thin 
cream and cook till evenly creamy; add salt, paprika, 
drop in the oysters, add the juice, and heat all for a 
moment; serve at once. 

The mousse is made by mixing a large canful of 
salmon with a cup of white sauce and the stiff whites 
of three eggs; season well, put into a mould, and steam 
three-quarters of an hour; turn out and surround with 
potato balls; add a little chopped parsley to these 
with melted butter. 

In place of this dish, crab meat Newburg, or 
creamed, may be served in httle dishes; or, fresh 
salmon, sliced, may be lightly fried and served with 
the potato balls; with this have lemon juice and 
melted butter, half and half, with a httle chopped 
parsley, and spread it on the fish just before serving. 

For the main course select a goose which is not too 
fat inside, as that would indicate that it was an old 
one; bend the breast bone, and see that the feet look 
fresh and young, not scaly and rough. Even then it 
is safe to steam the bkd for two hours before roasting 
it. Stuff it with this mixture: two cups of soft bread 
crumbs, one cup of chopped apple, one small onion 



226 EASY ENTERTAINING 

minced; salt, pepper, and a little sage to taste; put 
into a hot frying-pan with two heaping tables poonfuls 
of butter, and stir till it browns and the onion and 
apple are cooked; do not fill the goose too full, but 
leave room for the mixture to swell. Roast it upside 
down, and cover the bird with a thick coating of flour; 
baste frequently and cook long enough to be sure it is 
tender; twenty-five minutes to a pound is the rule 
for an old bird, and twenty for one that is younger. 
Serve with this bird some spiced apples. 

To make these, cook down three and a half pounds 
of sugar with a quart of cider vinegar and a handful 
of whole cinnamon and cloves, until it is thick; then 
put in some firm apples, not overripe, and let them 
barely simmer till they are tender, but do not let them 
break; remove from the fire, put the apples on a flat 
dish, stems up, and as they cool pour over them the 
syrup, boiled down a second time with a cupful more 
of sugar to offset the apple juice which has come out 
of the fruit and thinned it; this will coat them. 
When the goose is ready to serve, surround it with 
these spiced apples and give one to each person; this 
is an improvement on the old-fashioned plan of having 
apple sauce with goose. 

The sweet-potatoes served with this course may be 
boiled, mashed, and beaten up lightly with a half- 
cup of cream, some butter, salt, and pepper, and put 



EASY ENTERTAINING 227 

at once into a hot dish; or, they may be browned 
in the oven, or made into croquettes. Have brown 
giblet gravy with these as well as the goose itself. 

The cauliflower may be boiled the day before the 
dinner, and broken into bits; the next day it can be 
put into a deep dish with layers of white sauce and a 
slight sprinkling of cheese and baked with crumbs on 
top. 

The salad is something a trifle different from the 
ordinary; have some tart apples peeled and sliced 
very thin the last thing before the dinner; arrange 
these on chicory or lettuce, pour a cold French 
dressing all over, and, last, sprinkle with the tiny 
pearl onions which come in bottles. Very cold cream- 
cheese balls are nice with this, either plain ones or 
those made by mixing chopped olives or pimentoes 
with the cheese. 

Instead of the regular steamed plum pudding, here 
is something which is quite as good and not as rich: 

Christmas Fig Pudding. — Chop fine one pound of 
figs; add a cup of chopped suet, two cups of bread 
crumbs, three-quarters of a cup of sugar, two table- 
spoonfuls of citron, cut small, two well-beaten eggs, 
one tablespoonful of molasses, two tablespoonfuls of 
milk, one teaspoonful of soda, and a half-teaspoonful 
of nutmeg; put into a mould and steam two hours; 
serve with either a hard or foamy sauce, highly 



228 EASY ENTERTAINING 

flavored; have a sprig of holly in the top of the 
pudding when it appears on the table, as was sug- 
gested in the beginning. 

For those present who do not care for so hearty a 
dessert, or for all alike, a Uttle ice-cream is refreshing 
to close the meal. Try making an ordinary white 
ice-cream and mixing into it a cupful of powdered 
burnt almonds; they may be put through the meat- 
chopper, or merely pounded up. Have also a spoonful 
for the top of each glass. With these have small cakes 
iced in white, with little holly leaves cut out of citron 
on top, with bits of red candied cherry for berries. 
Or, if the fig pudding is omitted, have a course of ice- 
cream with a large Christmas cake, iced elaborately, 
with a holly wreath all around the top made in the 
same way. 

Another dinner may be quite different from this: 

Grapefruit or oysters. 

Clear soup with tapioca; short bread sticks. 

Crab meat en coquille. 

Roast turkey; cranberry moulds; mashed potatoes; parsnip 

cakes. 

Grape salad. 

Sponge-cake basket of ice-cream. 

Coffee. 

The fish course in this dinner is made by putting 
crab meat, either the fresh or canned variety, into 
shells after creaming it; the crab shells may be used. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 229 

or the large scallop shells which can be bought at a 
hardware-shop; fine crumbs are sifted over, and they 
are browned in the oven with a Uttle butter on top. 
Or, the meat may be heated, seasoned, and put plain 
into the shells and a mayonnaise put on top with a 
few capers. 

In place of this course an entree may be served; 
perhaps Uttle oyster pies baked in small dishes; or 
any sort of patty may be substituted. 

The cranberry is to be cooked thick, put through a 
sieve, and set in Uttle moulds, and these served on a 
flat glass dish decorated with hoUy; or, one mould 
may be used, if preferred, with hoUy aU around the 
edge of the dish. 

The salad is one to be made where lettuce or other 
salad green cannot be had. It is made by seeding 
Malaga grapes, either removing the seeds from one 
side or cutting each one in half; these are laid on 
white celery tips or on any green obtainable, and 
French dressing poured over, one made with lemon 
juice instead of vinegar; after it is passed a plate of 
cream cheese put through the ricer is passed to be 
eaten with this, a spoonful on top of each portion of 
grapes. 

The dessert is one especiaUy attractive, new, and 
just the thing for a Christmas dinner. To make it, 
bake a loaf of sponge-cake in a good-sized bread- tin, 



230 EASY ENTERTAINING 

or any tin of similar shape, having it evenly full on 
top when baked, not rounded. Cut off the top slice 
while the cake is fresh, but not hot, and remove all the 
crumb; make a rich white ice-cream, and when half 
frozen stir in a small cup of chopped citron, candied 
cherries, and pineapple with flavoring. Just before 
serving fill the cake with this, putting it in smoothly 
and pressing it into the comers; then take the top 
layer, which was removed, and cut this into two parts, 
like the flaps of a market basket, and lay them on 
top of the cream, adding an extra spoonful imder 
each cover to hold it half open; get a strip of angelica 
at the grocery or confectioner's — this is candied 
sugar-cane, very inexpensive — and lay it in warm 
water till it is flexible; bend this over the basket and 
stick the ends firmly down in the cream to keep them 
in place; on top fasten a bunch of hoUy with plenty 
of berries, and, if you choose, tie it with a red or green 
ribbon; or, use invisible wire. In serving, cut the 
whole down from top to bottom into thick slices. 
This novel dessert is suggestive of a basketful of 
Christmas presents and will be found just the thing 
for this holiday meal. 

To vary these dinners, in the South a little pig may 
be substituted for the goose or turkey, or even added 
to the regular menu or served in place of the fish 
course, though this makes a dinner which is almost 



EASY ENTERTAINING 231 

too heavy. The pig should be very young, not over 
four weeks old, and preferably three. Clean well, 
stuff with bread crumbs mixed with onion, sage, salt, 
and pepper, one beaten egg, and one or more table- 
spoonfuls of melted butter and a half-cup of hot 
water. Stuff lightly and sew the pig up; fasten the 
front legs forward and the back ones backward and 
skewer in place; rub all over with butter, salt, pepper, 
and flour, and put into a pan with a little water in a 
moderate oven. Baste often, using melted butter, 
and increase the heat of the oven gradually; bake 
two and a half hours, and be very careful not to let 
the skin burn, covering it with paper if necessary. 
Serve on a bed of parsley, and, if you choose, put a 
small red apple in the mouth; in carving, cut off the 
head first, then the hams, then cut down the back; 
have apple sauce to eat with it. 

For the small families where pig, turkey, or goose 
is too large, try having a fine capon. Stuff with 
oysters or stewed chestnuts in a bread-crumb dressing, 
and have sweet-potato croquettes with it, and giblet 
sauce. 

Another dish much delighted in by epicures is 
roast duck served with guava jelly and fried samp. 
Two or more fine ducks may be stuffed with a bread- 
crumb dressing mixed with chopped apple or celery, 
prunes or nuts, and roasted upside down, leaving 



232 EASY ENTERTAINING 

them slightly rare; the samp is a very coarse sort of 
hominy and requires cooking all day in a double 
boiler in slightly salted water to make it swell and 
grow soft; this may be done a day or more in advance 
of the dinner; it is to be pressed down in a tin while 
warm and allowed to stand till it is a firm mould; 
then it is sliced, dipped in slightly salted flour, and 
fried brown in deep fat. The slices may be of ordinary 
shape, or, better, they may be cut into crescents, 
with a round biscuit-cutter. The guava jelly may 
now be purchased at a large grocery, in small or good- 
sized glasses. Instead of this, slices of oranges may 
be used, cut with the peel on, and a spoonful of currant 
jelly may be put on each. 

A delicious and new frozen plum pudding is made 
by this recipe, and it may be used instead of any 
other dessert suggested: Scald one quart of milk, 
one pint of thick cream, and one pint of sugar; while 
hot, add four tablespoonfuls of melted, unsweetened 
chocolate, one tablespoonful of vanilla, and half a 
teaspoonful of lemon. Dry one pint of mixed maca- 
roons and graham crackers and roll very fine; add 
these to the hot mixture and cool. When ice-cold, 
put all in the freezer and turn till it is like thick mush; 
then add a pint of candied fruits, sultana raisins, figs, 
candied cherries, pineapple, and ginger, all cut into 
bits; pack all into a mould and let it stand to ripen 



EASY ENTERTAINING 233 

for four hours; serve with strongly flavored whipped 
cream, and decorate with holly. 

Those who dislike all frozen desserts may have a 
pretty Christmas finish to the dinner by making a 
charlotte russe, with cherries. Whip a pint of very 
thick and well-chilled cream, and as it grows thick 
fold in powdered sugar to taste, and add drop by drop 
a tablespoonful of gelatine dissolved first in a quarter 
of a cup of cold water, then over steam. Add a large 
cup of chopped candied cherries. Serve with holly 
around it. 

Another delicious and light dessert is quite simple 
to make. Whip a half-pint of rich cream till sti£f, and 
then add fifteen powdered stale macaroons and any 
flavoring you prefer. Pile this cream in a cut-glass 
dish and set it on a silver tray surrounded by a wreath 
of holly. Scatter candied or preserved cherries over 
the top, and in the centre put a rich full sprig of holly. 
It makes a particularly pretty dish and will be enjoyed 
by everybody. Whole fresh macaroons are some- 
times used as a border around the edge. For the 
crumbled macaroons you must have quite stale ones 
— a week or more old and quite dry. 

The holly for the Christmas dinner table should be 
kept in a cool place until needed, as it is usually best 
to buy it some days in advance to get full branches. 



MIDNIGHT SUPPERS 

THE most enjoyable of all meals is that which 
is served as the clock strikes twelve. There is 
a delightfully effervescent gayety in the air, 
and a flavor to the food which is lacking at other 
times. Even bread and butter or crackers and cheese 
taste like ambrosia, while daintier food has a flavor 
surpassing even that mythical delicacy, whatever it 
may have been. 

Of course the chafing-dish is most useful in pre- 
paring a more or less impromptu meal, but the un- 
initiated may use quite as well the small gas-stove of 
one or two burners, connected with the gas jet by a 
rubber tube. With this in readiness and the table 
spread, one's supper is an assured success. This 
table, by-the-way, will be especially attractive if the 
hostess owns one of the pretty and quaint brass 
candelabra, with the straight row of candle-cups 
across the top, which may be transformed into several 
shorter rows at different angles by merely moving it 
about. Somehow one of these groups of high unshaded 

234 



EASY ENTERTAINING 235 

lights is especially appropriate for the midnight feast. 
"With it and with some flowers one does not need 
many dishes on the board. A cover for each person, 
two plates of sandwiches, a bowl of salad, some olives, 
crackers, cheese, and crisp celery farci will be quite 
enough, especially as the hot food is to be passed. One 
of the best dishes for a supper, which has the advan- 
tage of being ready in a moment, is the old favorite, 
lobster Newburg. This needs a pint of lobster cut in 
dice, thoroughly warmed in half a pint of cream, the 
yolks of three eggs, salt, pepper, and a dash of sherry. 
It is readily reheated, and may be followed with a 
plain French dressed lettuce salad, with crackers, 
cheese, and cofifee. Or, if a heartier meal is desired, 
then why not choose as a first course that excellent 
and rather unusual affair which is called filets of 
lambs' tongues? These are very rich, and one tongue 
will serve two persons. They are boiled for two hours 
with two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice, then they are 
peeled, and the fat around the base is cut away. 
Each tongue is split lengthwise and flattened, so that 
it forms something shaped Hke a triangular cutlet; 
each half tongue is then breaded, and a tomato sauce 
prepared. At night all that is necessary is to put the 
tongues in a hot frying-pan and cook them quickly, 
and after laying them on a platter, pour over them the 
heated tomato sauce. If the first course consists of 



236 EASY ENTERTAINING 

this dish the second might be a shrimp salad with 
wafers. The shrimps must be put in ice-water for an 
hour during the day, and then dried before they are 
sprinkled with oil, vinegar, and salt. Then a stiff 
mayonnaise is to be made and set on the ice, and at 
night the shrimps are to be put in it and well stirred 
before they are laid on the bed of yellow lettuce hearts 
in the salad-bowl. After these good things there 
should be the final course of coffee, water-crackers, and 
the celery farci. This last is made by mixing Roque- 
fort cheese with sufficient butter to make a smooth 
paste, and salt enough to be quite evident; celery is 
cut in pieces of equal length, and the paste is put in 
the little trough of each piece. Care must be taken to 
have the celery as crisp as possible, and the best way 
to secure this is to have it well washed early in the 
day, but not wiped at all, merely rolled up in a towel 
and put on the ice; for some reason this makes it 
exceedingly good. The cheese may be added after it 
is wiped dry, just before it is needed. 

A second supper might begin with that always 
delicious dish, little pigs in blankets; this, too, may 
be made ready during the day. The largest oysters 
to be found are the ones selected, and these are well 
seasoned and then wrapped one by one in thin slices 
of bacon which are fastened on the back with tooth- 
pick skewers. At night these little pigs are put in the 



EASY ENTERTAINING 237 

frying-pan and browned, and then served on strips 
of toast with lemon. Creamed potatoes, also prepared 
in advance and reheated, are always nice with oysters 
and bacon, and are not much trouble. Plain sand- 
wiches of bread and butter should be offered with this 
course. Next there may be chicken salad, that dish 
which every housekeeper thinks she can make to 
perfection, and which is so seldom good. Here is a 
famous recipe : Cut cold chicken, either home cooked 
or tinned, into pieces as large as the end of one's 
finger and lay in oil, vinegar, and salt, perhaps two 
tablespoonfuls of it to a pint of chicken. Then cut 
up celery which has been washed and wiped very dry 
into pieces the same size, and put this into the same 
dressing in a separate dish; there should be half as 
much celery as chicken. Have ready three hard- 
boiled eggs to a pint of chicken, and cut these up and 
treat in the same way. Make a stiff mayonnaise, 
and be sure not to spoil it by putting in mustard, and 
set on the ice. About three or four hours before 
using the salad, mix all together, and put in a cupful 
of chopped olives, and stand on the ice till it is needed, 
when it must be well stirred again and laid on lettuce 
hearts. The trouble with chicken salad is that it is 
too wet; the oil and vinegar must be well strained off, 
especially from the celery, and the dressing must be 
almost a jelly. After this salad have the coffee, 



238 EASY ENTERTAINING 

crackers, and cheese, but omit the celery farci from 
the menu. 

Another supper might begin with deviled lobsters. 
Take freshly boiled ones and cut into large bits, and 
mix well with a paste of a tablespoonful of butter, a 
teaspoonful of curry-powder, a teaspoonful of pre- 
pared mustard, half a teaspoonful of Worcestershire 
sauce, and a Uttle salt. Put into a hot saucepan three 
tables poonfuls of butter, and when it bubbles add 
the lobster; cook two minutes. With this use a 
plain lettuce salad, and have cheese sandwiches with 
it, serving the cofifee alone. 

If these things seem too hearty, begin the meal 
with creamed oysters and cold chicken or turkey, 
with bread-and-butter, or rolls. Then have a celery 
and nut salad with plain cream-cheese sandwiches, 
and have chocolate instead of coffee to close with. 
Chicken Newburg makes an excellent first course, 
and this might be followed with a sweetbread salad 
made with mayonnaise, and then the celery farci and 
coffee. Or, sweetbreads and chicken may be creamed 
together and followed by lobster salad. Bacon and 
mushrooms are always acceptable, and so is shad roe 
either cooked in butter or put in with bacon and 
browned. 

Eggs make an easy first course, and they may be 
combined with all sorts of delicious things. Parmesan 



EASY ENTERTAINING 239 

eggs are good. Boil six eggs hard and take off the 
whites and cut them up into large pieces. Mash the 
yolks smooth with one tablespoonful of oil, one of 
mustard, a dash of paprika, salt, and two drops of 
Tabasco sauce. Mix the whites with a cup of white 
sauce, and put the yolks through the potato-ricer; 
lay the whites on hot buttered toast sprinkled with 
Parmesan cheese, and place the yolks on top. A 
rather heavy salad, either lobster or shrimp, might 
follow this dish. 

Soft-shell crabs are unusual at a midnight supper, 
yet they are quickly and easily cooked, and are cer- 
tainly delicious, and deviled hard-shell crabs are 
equally good. Duck, warmed over with chopped 
olives and currant jelly mixed in the gravy, makes a 
nice dish, and turkey heated in a rich white sauce to 
which two beaten eggs and some sherry have been 
added is easily prepared. One can have almost any- 
thing which is usually prepared for luncheon or.supper 
for this midnight meal, and all dishes seem alike de- 
lightful if they are hot and well seasoned. The main 
thing is to have them appetizing. 

It is not necessary or wise to make this supper a 
thing of many courses or too much elaboration. The 
air of informality which is its charm is lost in any 
attempt to serve it ceremoniously or at length. 



VALENTINE LUNCHEONS 

UNTIL recent years pink was considered the 
only color suitable for a valentine celebration. 
It is rather a novelty still to use another 
color, yet red is really a relief, and makes a more 
brilliant as well as a more modern table. For a 
luncheon for Feb. 14th, try arranging the table with 
a very large wire heart in the centrepiece, stuck 
loosely with long-stemmed red carnations mixed with 
a quantity of delicate asparagus fern, and set all 
around the edge tiny red candles in low sticks, so 
that the ferns will almost conceal their support, and 
you will be delighted with the result. Or, if you have 
any of the fairy lamps used many years ago, get them 
out of your cupboard, and put them about irregularly 
with ferns around them. If you have a pretty fern 
ball tie it over the table and stick red carnations into 
it and tie it with a true lovers' knot of red satin ribbon. 
Of course the small dishes on the table will be of cut 
glass or of silver, and if they are heart-shaped, so 
much the better. Have some of the soft red bonbons 
which come in individual paper cases in at least two 



EASY ENTERTAINING 241 

of the dishes, and a red jelly in another, but beware 
of the crimson of the crisp little radishes which are so 
tempting, but which will spoil the color of the flowers. 
If you use the radishes have them peeled. Place a 
heart-shaped box of bonbons before each guest, and 
have your place-cards dainty little valentines. A 
menu with a constant reminder of the day would be 
like this: 

Grapefruit in hearts. 

Cream of tomato soup; hot wafers. 

Clam croquettes. 

Chicken breasts on toast; beets filled with pease; potato 

croquettes. 

Cheese salad in hearts. 

Heart-shaped ices; cakes. 

Bar-le-Duc sandwiches. Cofifee. 

Instead of serving the grapefruit as usual take out 
the pulp with a spoon and put it in paper heart- 
shaped cases, chilling it well first; put a Uttle sugar 
and one maraschino cherry on each heart before 
serving. The soup you may refer to as made out of 
love apples, if you wish, or one of your guests may be 
discerning enough to discover it. Follow it with 
delicious croquettes made from clams. Chop a pint 
of them fine, scald in their own juice, and drain. Heat 
a pint of thin cream and thicken with a tablespoonful 
of butter mixed with one of flour; put in the clams, a 
pinch of powdered mace, and a little red pepper, but 



242 EASY ENTERTAINING 

no salt. Stir till smooth and then put in the beaten 
yolk of an egg and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley. 
Cook till very thick and put in a shallow pan to 
harden; mould into cones and roll in egg and bread 
crumbs, and fry in deep fat. If you choose you can 
serve small creamed potato balls with these. 

The chicken breasts are intended especially to 
mark the day, for each one is to be so cut as to be a 
perfect heart. Cook in the oven, basting frequently, 
and serve on heart-shaped pieces of toast dipped in 
the gravy in the pan. With these offer your guests a 
very attractive dish, red beets filled with French 
pease. Boil them till tender, but do not let them 
lose their shape ; while still warm peel them and hollow 
out the centres, leaving them like rather deep cups; 
brush them over inside and out with melted butter, 
salt, and pepper, and fill with the seasoned pease; 
keep very hot in the oven till the dish is needed. 

The salad is made by slicing Philadelphia cream 
cheese into two or three pieces, and cutting these into 
hearts with a tin cutter. Lay on lettuce and dot over 
with little red hearts cut from pimentoes; cover all 
with French dressing. The ices may be heart-shaped, 
with silver-paper arrows stuck through, or they may 
be little Cupids, or valentines, should you have them 
from the caterer. If you wish to prepare the course at 
home, bake some delicate cakes in heart-shaped tins, 



EASY ENTERTAINING 243 

cut off the tops, remove the inside crumb, and 
fill with stiffly frozen ice-cream; put on the tops 
again, cover with powdered sugar, add a candied 
cherry or two, and send to the table on individual 
plates with whipped cream around each one. 

Last comes the coffee, and with it a change from 
the usual Bar-le-Duc. Make some very thin sUces of 
toast and cut out in hearts; make a paste by mixing 
red jelly with cream cheese, and spread on the toast, 
putting on a second piece of the toast to make a sand- 
wich. Trim the edges and send to the table ; if these 
are small and daintily made they are delicious. 

It may be a useful suggestion to some hostess to 
mention that this luncheon may be turned into a 
guessing contest. Write as many quotations about 
love as there are guests present, and lay the papers 
by the plates. Read one in turn with each course, 
and let all guess the author, the hostess writing down 
the name of the one who guesses correctly. A prize 
may be given in keeping with the day, such as a 
small heart-shaped silver pin-tray. Of course the 
quotations must not be familiar ones. 

Another luncheon is given for any day during the 
season, without reference to St. Valentine, but some 
of the dishes may be exchanged for those already 
given. The soup, the croquettes, and the salad all 
are new. The same red flowers and candles may be 



244 EASY ENTERTAINING 

used, substituting an oval mound for the wire heart. 
Have the following menu: 

Chilled oranges in baskets. 
Cream of watercress soup. 
Creamed-shrimp croquettes. 
Mushrooms in patty shells. 
Fried chicken, or broiled squab; spinach in egg baskets; sweet- 
potato puff. 
Banana boats; bread and butter crisps. 
Cream parfait; small cakes. 
Coffee; bonbons. 

Cut large oranges in two, take out the pulp with a 
spoon; scrape out the shells, chill the pulp, and heap 
in them again, sweetening and flavoring with a Uttle 
sherry. 

The soup is especially nice, and watercress is to be 
had the year around in cities. To prepare it, begin 
by picking over, washing, and chopping a large bunch 
and simmering it in a pint of water for twenty minutes. 
Then strain, add a pint of rich milk, thicken with the 
beaten yolk of an egg and a tablespoonful of butter 
rubbed with one of flour; season and serve in hot cups, 
with or without whipped cream on top. If you cannot 
get the cress, use a soup made with cream and canned 
pease, for that is always nice. The croquettes which 
follow this course are seen in Normandy and Brittany, 
but never in America, though they are simple and 
delicious. To make them, lay a large cupful of 



EASY ENTERTAINING 245 

canned or fresh shrimps in ice- water for an hour; 
then wipe dry, remove the black strings, and chop 
fine. Scald two cups of milk, and add three table- 
spoonfuls of cornstarch mixed with a Uttle cold milk, 
and cook till smooth. Beat light the yolks of three 
eggs, and mix in with a little salt; stir till consistent 
and thick. Then pour into a shallow pan and let 
this stand till cold and firm. Cut into pieces shaped 
like croquettes, dip in egg and bread crumbs, and fry 
quickly in deep, hot fat; drain in the oven with the 
door open, on brown paper. 

For the patties use fresh mushrooms if you can. 
Wash, wipe, and peel them; chop and cook in a rich, 
well-seasoned cream sauce for two minutes, and fill 
the heated shells. If you must use canned mush- 
rooms, drain them, slice, and mix with an equal 
quantity of asparagus tips, such as come canned for 
such purposes. Heat as before in a rich sauce. 

One heavy course will be sufficient, and -you may 
choose between chicken and squab and a pretty dish 
of spinach in egg baskets. Take half as many eggs 
as you are to have guests, boil hard, and cut in halves, 
removing the yolks. Cook spinach as usual, but put 
it twice through the meat-chopper to make it smooth; 
season with a tablespoonful of cream, a teaspoonful 
of lemon juice, salt and pepper, and while very hot 
put into the heated egg-whites. For the potatoes, 



246 EASY ENTERTAINING 

boil, mash, and season nice sweet ones and beat in the 
yolks of two eggs; make into little cakes and fry 
brown. 

For the salad get large ripe red bananas; peel them, 
and with a small spoon remove enough of the pulp to 
leave a boat. Fill the space with the pulp of grape- 
fruit, chill thoroughly, and cover with French dressing; 
serve on the white hearts of lettuce. Little balls of 
cream cheese are nice with this salad. 

The parfait is made by boiling a large cup of sugar 
with a small half-cup of water till it threads or forms 
a hard ball in cold water. Beat stiff the whites of 
three eggs and slowly beat in the syrup. Fold in a 
pint of cream very stiffly whipped. Flavor, and pack 
in ice for five hours. 



WINTER MENUS FOR FOUR WEEKS 



BREAKFAST 

Baked apples and cream. 

Codfish croquettes; pop-overs; 

coffee. 

DINNER 

Baked ham; browned sweet-pota- 
toes; creamed parsnips. 
Orange salad. 
Pumpkin pie, with whipped cream. 
Coffee. 

SUPPER 

Sliced ham with eggs in mayonnaise; 

hot biscuits; coffee. 

Preserved cherries; cake. 



Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Frizzled dried beef; potato omelette; 

toast; coffee. 

Fried corn-meal mush and syrup. 

LUNCHEON 

Creamed ham; baked potatoes; 

pickles. 

Cocoa and cake. 

DINNER 

Bean soup. 
Pot-roast of beef; minced vege- 
tables; baked potatoes. 
Cabinet pudding. 
Coffee. 



DINNER 

Sliced pot-roast, reheated, edged with 

minced vegetables; mashed potatoes. 

Watercress and French dressing. 

Chocolate bread pudding. 

Coffee. 



Wednesday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal with cream. 

Creamed smoked salmon; potato 

cakes; corn mufiBns; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Minced pot-roast on toast; hashed 
potatoes; tea. 
Peanut cookies. 

DINNER 

Beef broth with barley. 

Chicken pot-pie; creamed celery; 

sweet-potatoes. 

Baked peach pudding. 

Coffee. 



Thursday 

BREAKFAST 

Steamed oatmeal and dates; cream. 
Creamed hard-boiled eggs, baked; 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Baked bananas. 
Baked potatoes stuffed with bacon; 



corn bread; 



Dffee. 



LUNCHEON 

Rice croquettes with cheese sauce; 

biscuits; tea. 

Prunes stuffed with nuts. 



LUNCHEON 

Hashed chicken and boiled rice (from 
Wednesday); fairy corn bread. 
Chocolate and marshmallows. 



Cream of tomato soup. 
Pork chops, apple sauce; sweet- 
potatoes. 
Cranberry pie. 
Coffee. 



247 



248 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Creamed codfish in baked potatoes; 

toast; cofiFee. 

Griddle cakes and syrup. 

LUNCHEON 

Deviled sardines on toast; French- 
fried potatoes; tea. 
Cranberry tartlets (from Thursday). 

DINNER 

Fried flounders; scalloped tomatoes 

(from Thursday) ; potatoes. 

Celery salad. 

Prune and nut jelly with cream. 

CofiFee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Apples stufTed with bananas, baked. 

Bacon and fried eggs; coffee; 

doughnuts. 

LUNCHEON 

Picked-up flounder (from Friday) ; 

tea; hot rolls. 

Gingerbread and cream cheese. 

DINNER 

Cream of onion soup. 

StuflFed tenderloins; baked potatoes; 

parsnip cakes. 

Oranges. 

Coffee. 

Sunday 

BREAKFAST 

Grapefruit. 

Creamed salt mackerel; toast; coffee. 

Coffee cake. 

DINNER 

Clear soup with rice. 

Roast beef; Yorkshire pudding; 

baked sweet-potatoes; succotash. 

Vanilla ice-cream and ginger. 

Coffee. 

SUPPER 

Welsh rarebit; sandwiches; olives; 

coffee. 

Preserves and orange cake. 

Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal and stewed figs. 
Frizzled dried beef; creamed po- 
tatoes; pop-overs; coffee. 



LUNCHEON 

Clam chowder. 
Orange cake and tea. 

DINNER 

Roast of beef (from Sunday); baked 

tomatoes and rice; celery. 

Cottage pudding, foamy sauce. 

Coffee. 

Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Eggs poached in milk; baked po- 
tatoes; coffee. 
Fried corn-meal mush in cakes; 
syrup. 

LUNCHEON 

Baked beans; Boston brown bread; 

tea. 

Orange marmalade and wafers. 

DINNER (company) 

Grapefruit. 
Cream of pea soup. 
Roast leg of lamb; turnips filled with 
pease; browned sweet-potatoes; cur- 
rant jelly. 
(Canned) asparagus salad with 
French dressing. 
Apricot ice; cakes. 
Coffee. 

Wednesday 

BREAKFAST 

Baked apples and cream. 

Bacon; fried sweet-potatoes; toast; 

coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Milk toast; stuffed potatoes; tea. 
Figs and dates. 

DINNER 

Lamb, reheated; macaroni and 

cheese; pease. 

Fig, date, and nut jelly. 

Coffee. 

Thursday 

BREAKFAST 

Sausage cakes; fried apples; toast; 

coffee. 

Coffee cake. 

LUNCHEON 

Lamb and rice croquettes; macaroni 

and cheese (reheated) ; tea. 

Jam and crackers. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



249 



DINNER 

Strips of veal cutlet, breaded; 

creamed baked cabbage; potatoes. 

Orange salad. 

Pumpkin pie and cheese. 

CofiEee. 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Fried scallops; hashed browned po- 
tatoes; coffee. 
Toast and grapefruit marmalade. 

LUNCHEON 

Canned salmon with cream sauce; 
biscuits; tea. 
Steamed figs. 

DINNER 

Broiled whitefish; scalloped toma- 
toes and rice; IJma beans. 
Steamed suet and nut pudding, hard 
sauce. 
Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal and cream. 
iggs; French-fried potatoes; 
toast; coffee. 



LUNCHEON 

Creamed whitefish (from Friday); 

potato cakes. 
Chocolate and fresh ginger cookies. 

DINNER 

Cream of Lima-bean soup (from 

Friday). 

Frenched pork tenderloins; apple 

croquettes; mashed sweet-potatoes. 

Bread and jam pudding, foamy sauce. 

Coffee. 



SUPPER 

Fried oysters; sandwiches; olives; 

coffee. 

Celery mayonnaise. 

Preserves and cake. 



Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal and cream. 
Bacon and eggs; muffins; coffee. 

LUNCHEON (company) 

Grapefruit. 

Cream of celery soup. 

Clam cutlets; potato balls. 

Chicken soufiaS; French pease; jelly; 

tea. 

Orange and nut salad; cakes. 

Frozen whipped cream. 

DINNER 

Clear brown soup. 

Sliced lamb, reheated in casserole; 

fried parsnip cakes; sweet-potatoes. 

Oranges. 

Coffee. 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Little sausages; fried apple rings; 
toast; coffee. 
Doughnuts. 

LUNCHEON 

Stuffed sweet-potatoes; cocoa; bis- 
cuits. 
Little cakes; jam. 

DINNER 

Cream of white-bean soup. 

Veal chops; macaroni and cheese; 

minced turnips. 

Chocolate blanc-mange. 

Coffee. 



Sunday 

BREAKFAST 

Creamed finnan-haddie ; toast; 

coffee. 
Waffles and scraped maple sugar. 

DINNER 

Clear soup. 

Fore quarter of lamb, stuffed, mint 

jelly; potatoes; turnips. 

Mince pie; cheese. 

Coffee. 



BREAKFAST 

Oranges. 

Bacon; baked potatoes; corn bread; 

coffee. 

Doughnuts. 

LUNCHEON 

Baked cheese pudding; fresh bis- 
cuits; tea. 
Preserves and lady-fingers. 



250 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



DINNER 

Cream of barley soup. 

Planked beefsteak surrounded with 

minced carrots and pease; baked 

potatoes. 

Pineapple pudding with foamy sauce. 

Coffee. 



Chops (from fore quarter of Iamb for 
Sunday) ; pease ; caramel sweet- 
potatoes. 
Chocolate bread pudding. 
Coffee. 



Thursday 

BREAKFAST 

Oatmeal and dates with cream. 
Scrambled eggs in rolls; toast; coffee. 

LUNCHEON (company) 

Cream of clam soup in cups. 

Salmon cutlets; pease. 

Chops; broiled mushrooms; fried 

French sweet-potatoes; tea. 
Celery and nut mayonnaise; olives. 
Orange sherbet in halved orange 

shells in low glasses; cakes. 

DINNER 

Clear soup. 

Beefsteak; potato cakes; stewed 

celery, baked. 

Fig pudding, hard sauce. 

Coffee. 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Salmon in cases of baking-powder 

biscuits; rolls; coffee. 

Doughnuts. 

LUNCHEON 

Creamed hard-boiled eggs, baked in 

small dishes; potatoes; tea. 

Preserved pears; cakes. 



Cream of celery soup (from Thurs- 
day). 
Stuffed baked fish; creamed onions; 
potatoes. 
Cocoanut pudding. 
Coffee. 



BREAKFAST 

Boiled eggs; toast; coffee. 
Waffles and maple syrup. 

DINNER 

Clear brown soup. 
Fore quarter of lamb, stuffed; cran- 
berry compote; masshed potatoes; 
cauliflower. 
Rice supreme. 
Coffee. 

SUPPER 

Deviled sardines in chafing-dish; 

biscuits; coffee. 

Potato and olive salad. 

Preserved peaches and cake. 



Monday 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal and stewed figs; cream. 

Broiled bloaters; hashed potatoes; 

toast; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Cold roast pork; cabbage mayon- 
naise. 
Cocoa; cake. 

DINNER 

Mock turtle soup. 
Pot-roast of beef; macaroni and 

cheese; creamed carrots. 

Chocolate cottage pudding, foamy 

sauce. 

Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Bacon and kidneys; graham muffins; 

coffee. 

Toast and marmalade. 

LUNCHEON 

Creamed fish (from Friday); potato 

puffs. 

Cocoa and spice-cakes. 



Tuesday 

BREAKFAST 

Eggs baked in toast squares; pop- 
overs; coffee. 
Fried rice and syrup. 

LUNCHEON 

Macaroni croquettes (from Monday), 

with cheese sauce; hot biscuits; tea. 

Stewed figs. 



EASY ENTERTAINING 



251 



Cream of carrot soup. 
Pot-roast (from Monday) in casserole 

with tomatoes ; rice; string-beans. 
Slices of cottage pudding (from Mon- 
day) fried with fruit sauce. 
Coffee. 



Cream of chicken soup (from Wednes- 
day). 
Chicken loaf; pease; cranberry 
compote. 
Spanish cream. 
Coffee. 



Wednesday 

BBEAKFAST 

Oranges. 

Baked sausages; apple rings; toast; 

coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Creamed scallops; rolls; tea. 
Fried rice and maple sugar. 



DINNER 



beans; 



Fricasseed chicken; Lima 

sweet-potatoes. 
Lettuce with cream cheese balls, 

French dressing. 
Junket with preserved ginger and 

whipped cream. 
Coffee. 



Thursday 

BBEAKFAST 

Cereal and cream. 
Fish balls and bacon; toasted muf- 
fins; coffee. 

LTTNCHEON 

Creamed corn on toast rounds; 

cocoa. 

Figs and cake. 



Friday 

BREAKFAST 

Oranges. 

Fried smelts; creamed potatoes; 

pop-overs; coffee. 

LUNCHEON 

Plain omelette; baked potatoes: tea. 
Fresh gingerbread and cream cheese. 

DINNER 

Cream of potato soup. 

cod with oyster sauce; po- 
tatoes; baked creamed cauliflower. 
Apple dumplings with hard sauce. 
Coffee. 



Saturday 

BREAKFAST 

Bacon and eggs; toast; coffee. 
Orange marmalade. 

LUNCHEON 

Cod and oysters, creamed (from 

Friday) ; tea. 

Gingerbread, served hot with foamy 

sauce (from Friday). 

DINNER 

Veal stew; baked scalloped tomatoes; 

baked rice and cheese. 

Home-made charlotte xusae. 

Coffee. 



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